Cyber Island
by cgal120
Summary: Video game loving Amelia Jones thought she had found the perfect chance when offered an apprenticeship with an indie game producer - until she and a colleague were sucked into the game. After losing hope, she meets another victim and plans with him a way to get back out into the real world before the game traps them forever. UKxFem!US. Cyberverse.
1. Prologue

**Cyber Island**

**Prologue**

Ever since I was a child I had been quite the loner amongst other people. I just didn't seem to find a place where I could fit in and be myself. Everyone was either too noisy or too quiet, too rude or too polite… I could never seem to find a common ground with people where they could just be around me and not start to frustrate me.

Every day I would wake up in the morning and regret doing so as I knew that I would have to be around these annoying excuses for human beings – the posh girls with egos so enlarged they need an extra bag to carry it; the jock boys with brain cells smaller than the average guppy; the emo kids who wanted their lives to end so badly they sliced into their wrists and watched the blood pour out; the tramps whose skirts were shorter than their vaginas; and the preps who were too involved with lessons and constantly shouting out the right answer before anyone else got the chance to say anything.

I had moved to the UK at the age of ten. It was just my mom, brother and I – my dad, George, had been killed in a motorcycle accident when I was eight years old, and with only one income coming into the house it was a pretty tough time for Mom. Luckily, she got a job offer in the UK and moved us over their as soon as she could. We started to rebuild our lives finally – Mom was making more friends due to her job and Alfred (my brother) and I were put into what we were told was meant to be the greatest school in the county.

I'll admit it that at first that school seemed pretty great – there was an awesome media facility, a great sports centre and everything about it just screamed that it could get you into the greatest colleges and universities around the country. Most of the time the teachers were really nice too – always helpful and polite, willing to show all of us new kids around to our classrooms when we didn't know where to go.

Alfred and I started school at the same time as everyone else, so thankfully not many people had really had a chance to get into cliques like they usually would. We were all thrown into the deep end – given nothing but a timetable and an awful map to find our way around the building to each of our lessons.

Alfred was a hit with the entire year group straight away – he was funny and charming and an all-round good guy. He helped anyone when they were in trouble and always had a smile on his face – the teachers loved him and it was no secret that a lot of the girls had a crush on him.

I, on the other hand, was not as welcome in that building as he was. It was made very clear to me just how people felt about me by the second week of school – paper balls were thrown at me, stationary and books… Things were written on the white boards about me – calling me names and saying I should 'fuck off back to America'.

I guess that's when I started to pull myself into the background away from people. I hated it. Being around them made me feel like I wanted to disappear into the dark and never be seen again.

"Urgh, look at that coat Amelia's wearing," some would say, pointing at my blue jacket with disgust. It was a jacket that others in the school wore, even some of them, but when it was on me it was like it had become tainted, like it was dirty just by affiliation with me…

I was grateful when the day came that I could leave that hell hole and move onto my further education. I had gotten a place at the college that I most desperately wanted to go to and on the course that really interested me – game design.

I liked reading and writing of course, but video games were the one outlet that I had that really made me lose myself in another world. I could put on any kind of video game – especially horror games – and feel myself slip into the role of the character I was playing, the adrenaline would pump through my veins and I would scream and laugh like I had just been given the best prank in the world.

I liked video game characters better than I did real people. They were programed to be the way they were, they weren't doing it because they were trying to be like someone else. In one of the games I had played, this character liked taking drugs because that was what he was like – there were girls I knew that would take drugs just because 'everyone else was doing it'…

Mom was worried about how anti-social I was, how I was distancing myself away from everyone in the world. I didn't mean to worry her, I really didn't, but being around people was just too much stress than I could handle. The lies that were so clearly being spread across the room that caused so much hatred and pain amongst victims and bullies alike, the rumours that spread about pregnancy, drug use, alcoholism, amongst other problems that could be found in the town I lived in.

Why would I really want to be around those kinds of people when they were only going to damage me like they were doing with themselves? Was that really the message that society wanted to give me? That being myself was not okay unless I was useless junkie trying to find the money for my next fix because everyone else was doing the same?

I don't think so!

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

I wandered through the halls of the college on my first day, edging myself to the sides as people ran past me in a hurry - the smell of smoke hurt my nostrils as one guy walked past me, his hair greener than the grass outside and piercings all over his face…

Looking around as my name was called, I smiled a little as Alfred ran towards me in his kit – he had chosen to do fitness and sports science as his course at the college, something that Mom was much more pleased with than she was with my computing and programing course. He was training to become a fitness instructor and was already onto places to get an apprenticeship with a local gym.

"You forgot your key this morning," he said, throwing the item over to me and grinning. I caught it and stuffed it into my pocket, looking around as girls started to look at my brother again.

"Thanks…" I muttered, rubbing my arm before turning to walk to my class. He walked up alongside me though, looking down at me in confusion. "Don't you have a class you need to be getting to?"

"Yeah, in 15 minutes," Alfred said, putting his hand on my shoulder and pulling me to a stop. "Seriously, what's the matter, Amie? I thought you were excited!"

"I'm just getting flashbacks that's all," I replied, looking around. The judgemental looks were starting already .

Why was that tall handsome blonde talking to that drab girl with the skinny jeans, Vans and baggy t-shirt? Why would someone like him give someone like me the time of day?

Shrugging my shoulder out of his grasp, I continued walking down the corridor towards my classroom – ignoring the name Alfred muttered at me under his breath as he walked back to where it was he was supposed to be.

From that day on, the relationship between myself and my brother was very strained. He had no idea that he was drawing so much attention – and when he did notice, he played it into his advantage… The amount of girls I knew he had slept with was incredible – and Mom was none the wiser about any of her son's escapades.

He got his apprenticeship.

But so did I.

By the middle of my second year, I had been offered a place at a gaming company – an independent place that would give me great pay and actually let me help to develop and test out new video game ideas and means of playing.

All I had to do was finish my course with excelling grades and it was mine.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

I got triple distinction.

Which in laymen's terms means I did freaking awesome!

The messages sent between myself and my new boss were very clear that I had received the place even before my results had come into place – Mom couldn't believe that I had done so well in such a short space of time; I had finally made her proud of me, something that I had been trying to do for eighteen years.

She made sure that I had everything I needed on my first day – my bag with filled with snacks, drink, money, my phone, keys. It was like the first day of school all over again, but this time I was going slightly further afield.

The company was based in a small laboratory building on the outskirts of the town, right past the forest and up on a hill. It was barely visible unless you looked really hard or with a telescope – it was like something from a horror story. Mum was wary of me working their at first – she questioned it's safety until I took her with me one day to go and look around the facilities when Mr Honda invited me to come visit it.

After that she came to the conclusion that it was perfectly safe for me to work in.

I used my key card to get into the building as soon as I arrived – it was cold outside, the mist settling in around the building was damp and unsettling, as if someone had set of a whole load of dry ice. My hands were shaking with nerves, but I managed to get the key card into the holder okay without snapping it in two.

As I entered the main entranceway, I was surprised to see someone was stood with Mr Honda – a tall boy with silver hair and purple eyes. They both looked round at me, Mr Honda making his way over.

"Mr Honda?" I asked curiously. He shook his head a little.

"Kiku, please," he said. "I know how you Westerners always say your names that way round. Amelia, I'd like you to meet your colleague at this company, Ivan Braginski. You two will be helping me out with my latest experiment."

I held my hand out for Ivan to shake, but he just looked down his large nose at me and proceeded to follow Kiku through the entranceway into the main laboratory. Though I was staggered by his unusual rudeness, I followed the two men into the lab and looked around at the setup that I had not seen on my trip the previous week.

There was a stand set up on one side of the room, a large computer system in the middle – a giant monitor sat above it with what looked like the loading screen of a video game. Kiku and Ivan were walking over to it, so I saw fit to follow them further.

"What is this?" Ivan pondered, looking down at the shorter Mr Honda with genuine curiosity. Kiku looked back at him and smiled slightly, moving over to the keyboard before the giant monitor. He typed quickly, the codes appearing on the screen in a series of 0s and 1s; binary code, the basis of most computer programs.

"This is what we are going to be working on today," he said, not looking away from the monitor as more and more codes started to flash up on the screen. His fingers were moving so quickly and swiftly across the keyboard it was as if he wasn't really typing at all – like the code was controlling him and using his hands to rewrite themselves on the screen before us. "This video game is going to be the first in a long range of games that brings the player into the world of the game!"

"Virtual reality?" I asked, walking next to Ivan and watching the thousands of codes streaming across the screen. "But that's not a new concept…"

"This version is," Kiku countered. "In this, you will seem like you have really been sent into the world of the game. Players will interact with each other online as if they are in the same place! The whole world connected virtually!"

"It can't possibly work," Ivan said, folding his arms and looking at the Japanese man sceptically.

"I know that you two can make this work," said Kiku. "You are both the best at what you do."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

For three days, we spent all of our work time looking over programing sheets and working out kinks in the codes that Kiku gave us. He wouldn't let us work on the machine – he wouldn't even let us go near it; he simple gave us the codes to look through and work out where it was going wrong.

On the fourth day, I went back to the laboratory early – hoping to try and get a little extra work done before Ivan showed up. The guy was a big ball of Russian paranoia and ego – he tried everything he could to be the best, trying to demean my work and make his seem like God's gift to video games. He looked down at me and spoke to me as if a woman shouldn't be good at this type of thing – and I was determined to prove him wrong.

I walked through the entranceway and over to the lab door, pausing slightly as I heard arguing inside. I snuck in and hid behind a desk, listening at the intense shouting that was coming between Ivan and Kiku.

"You are deranged!" bellowed the Russian. "This is insane! You could kill us by doing this!"

"That is the point!" Kiku snapped in return. His voice was harsh, cold, more threatening than I had ever heard him before. It was a strange phenomena, feeling fear towards a man that was smaller than me, but there was definitely something not right about him. "Come out, Amelia."

Blinking, I gasped as the table I was hiding behind was flung aside leaving me unprotected as I crouched on the floor. I got to my feet quickly and stood my ground, looking at Kiku hard as Ivan tried to make his way away from the machine.

"What are you doing?" I asked, looking at the Japanese man. "What's going on in here?"

"The final test," Kiku said emotionlessly, holding a remote. He pressed a large red button, shifting aside as the machine moved, the virtual reality chamber rising from the ground and aiming as if it had become the barrel of a gun. It aimed at Ivan and I, shooting out a bolt of bright white light.

Electricity coursed through me, freezing me in place as I screamed in total agony before everything turned black.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

My fingers curled into something soft as I regained consciousness. I was surprised, everything was so warm – nothing like the lab which was cold and metallic. I groaned softly and blinked my eyes open, quickly shielding them from the bright sunshine that hit them.

Sunlight…

Sitting up quickly, I looked around me in total surprise.

I was on a beach, a warm, sunny beach – one with white sand and the bluest ocean I had ever laid eyes on. I looked behind me to find a large forest leading up to what seemed to be an active volcano…

"What the fuck…" I muttered, looking around. "Kiku? Ivan?"

I got to my feet and brushed the sand off of my hands on my jeans, trying to find any sign of how I got there. I was in England… How could I have possibly gotten to a tropical island? Just how long had I been unconscious…?

"You look so afraid, Amelia…" came a voice from nowhere. "You too, Ivan…" It was Kiku, and somehow he could see both of us though I couldn't see either of them. "You are in my game," he continued. "That beam sent you straight into my video game and the only way you are getting out is if you beat all the levels. Try not to die though. Oh, I'll give you help occasionally, but it's winner takes all – only one of you will be getting out alive. Welcome to Cyber Island."

_**Notes:**_

**Ah, a new story despite others still being in play! **

**YOLO!**

***is shot into a thousand pieces***

**Anyways, this is a new AU that I'm trying out thanks to pushes from a friend – it's Cyberverse. More will be explained as the story moves on and there is a reason this is UKUS story okay! He may not have been mentioned in this chapter but this one is only the prologue so be patient okay? XD**

**Also, Ivan being the bad guy is so clichéd – he's going to be trouble, yes, but I wanted to make someone else the antagonist for once and well… Kiku's got some dark in him, you can see it. That sassy little guy has a lot of anger bottled up in him that I wanted to tap into so just wait and see what happens!**

**I hope you stick around for this story as it should be a pretty good turn out :D**


	2. Chapter 1

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter One**

_**One Year Later**_

I held my breath as I hid under the clear cool water, swimming as quietly as I could in an attempt to keep my location hidden. My hair had grown longer over the past year, I had managed to find tools to trim it and keep it under control and at that moment it was tied in a simple pony tail to keep it out of my vision. I was aiming for the waterfall at the back of the lagoon I had been resting by – it had been peaceful and quiet until the usual screaming started nearby. I wasn't surprised to be honest – it was an almost daily occurrence all because that moron, Ivan, couldn't find me.

The day that I had been sucked into that damned video game still stuck clear in my mind. After Kiku's voice had disappeared, his ominous message continued to ring through my head like someone had just rung a loud bell and I had been stood next to it. 'Don't die'… 'Only one can survive'… 'Cyber Island'… It started to register in my head that I was inside that giant computer in Kiku's lab; that I had helped to create my own prison. I collapsed to the ground and clutched at my head, breathing deeply to keep myself from breaking down.

Getting to my feet, I pulled up the strap of my vest as it slipped down my arm – the heat from the bare sunlight above me was causing my legs to sweat through my jeans and my feet to get sore in my sneakers. I was out in the open, too exposed to whatever it was that Kiku was planning and anything that Ivan could pull for his own survival. Looking around me, I took a long glance at the forest nearby. It was thick and dark amongst the tall mixture of trees, the light outside such a contrast it made it difficult to see far within. I was terrified and confused – a bad combination in a survival situation. Of all of the video games that I had ever played in the past – shooter games, war games and simulation games where you have to keep your player alive for as long as possible – I had never thought about what it would be like to actually be in those environments.

Stuff like this only happened in Sci-Fi movies – it wasn't meant to happen in real life and if it did… Well, it happens to other people! Those people you see on the TV whose families are crying for them to come home safely or for the killer to just turn themselves in… It shouldn't have happened to me… It had to be a mistake…

Taking a harsh breath, I started to walk towards the forest tentatively. My skin was becoming far too hot and I didn't have the tools to be able to deal with anything like sunburn or heat stroke – I wouldn't really know what to do with burns anyway, I wasn't a doctor! I knew you had to cool it off, but that was about it! From what I had learnt about as a child when I used to go camping, trees needed water to grow like any other plant – so it would stand to reason to go to the trees and greenery to find any source of drinkable water. And as shade and drinking water were my main priorities at that moment, it seemed like a good idea to go with my instincts and take a search through the forest for the water source. I had to find those items before I even thought about more suitable clothing and possibly weapons to defend myself should Ivan come looking for me for an attack. Then there was the matter of how was I going to eat? I had no idea if any of the food on this island was edible – whether they could be programmed to be poisonous or just the simple fact that they were coding could be enough to stop them from being eaten. There didn't seem to be any sign of wildlife either…

I couldn't quite believe the sheer density of the trees around me as I stepped deeper and deeper into the forest. It was only now that I was up close and personal with the environment that I had been subjected to that I could find the little details that showed the cyber nature of the worlds. Like a macro shot, I could see the billions of binary codes that made up the world around me – a bush nearby was glittering with green numbers of various shades that, on screen, would look like a simple clipping texture.

It was unnerving being alone; my arms were folded around myself protectively as my feet crunched along the fallen leaves and twigs on the ground. I was on edge and my fight-or-flight instincts were playing against me, driving me mad as I could see no threat but knew that they could be anywhere around me at any moment. With no idea where I was going, I hitched my backpack (which I had managed to keep hold of all that time) up onto my shoulders properly. I had no idea just how long I had been walking for, I just knew that I was lost but my feet just kept going…

Eventually, my legs failed me… I fell to the ground and leant against the nearest tree to me, my frame shaking as the gravity of the situation hit me like a truck. I refused to cry though, knowing that that bastard was probably watching me on his monitor, but my breaths started to come out in harsh pants – my chest constricting with the early signs of a panic attack. Never before had I hated anyone more than I hated Kiku for sending me into this nightmare for his own sick pleasure.

What would my family say? Would they miss me? Did they know I was gone already or would they never even realise that I was gone at all? Or would Golden Boy continue to outshine me even if I were to die in this godforsaken game? God did I hate myself for still feeling so inferior to Alfred even as I neared death…

My heart stopped for a moment and my breath caught in my throat as a crashing sounded nearby and Ivan burst through a thicket of bushes towards me. He stopped and looked me up and down, his chest heaving from running so fast. He was filthy – his white shirt was damp with sweat and stained with dust, dirt and grass. Even his trousers were filthy… But it took me a moment to notice the long, shiny machete in his hands.

"Ivan…" I said, my voice quiet. Slowly, I got to my feet – my eyes were locked on his vivid purple ones like I was staring down a wild dog. "Where… Where did you get that machete…?"

His eyes narrowed, his gaze locked on my every move. "That does not matter…" he replied. His body tensed as if he was getting himself ready to strike. "You hear him, did you not? You heard what Kiku said! Only one of us is getting out of here alive!"

"He also said that we have to beat all the levels!" I argued. "He's a sadistic liar, Ivan! You can't trust him!"

"He is the only one that can get me out of here," snarled Ivan. "And if sacrificing you gets me out of her alive, then so be it!"

I had but a moment to duck and scream as he swung the sharp blade near my neck in attempt to behead me for his freedom. On the floor once more, I scrambled away as Ivan swung again – this time, he managed to strike and cut my forearm slightly. I yelped and held my arm when I managed to get to my feet, running away from him as fast as I could. I was small than him and lighter – I could run faster than him without even trying. With a distance put between us, I broke into a clearing and looked around at the large lagoon with its flowing waterfall.

After all of that, I had finally found my water source but with a mad man after me it was probably for the best that I leave it for the time being and come back to it. However, my arm was bleeding and I could hear his footsteps growing ever closer to me in the distance. Holding my breath, I dived into the water quietly and went as deep as I could so I could swim over to the waterfall. Usually, behind waterfalls, there are crevices or caves where the water has made the rocks crumble away – I was hoping that that was the case in this situation.

As I came up for air, I could hear him shouting in frustration at losing me – the buffoon not even thinking to look behind the waterfall. I took a deep calming breath as I sat on the stones behind the water, carefully shifting myself into the dark cave to hide myself until he went away. My whole body was soaked through, the water making the blood from my wound trickle down my arm like die in a bowl. I dumped my backpack down in front of me and looked through it – picking out objects like crisps, sweets, a sandwich, a bottle of water and my mobile phone.

My phone…

Quickly turning on the damp device (I was so glad I had one of those new waterproof phones), I blinked as I found it working in full order – though the signal bar near the top was flickering ominously. Knowing that this could be my one chance, I opened up my phone book and loaded my Mom's chat list up.

_I'm so sorry Mom… Help me… Kiku's evil… He's sent Ivan and me somewhere and said only one can get out alive… They're trying to kill me…_

I pressed send and watched as the little circle on the screen slowly span until the message surprisingly set 'sent'. But then the screen flickered and the signal was lost. I had no idea what I was expecting to happen next, all I knew that is for some reason that worked… Mom might send someone to help me…

Leaning my head back on the cave wall, I tried to curl up as much as I could – the damp and dark was started to affect me, chilling me right to the bone. I jumped though as I heard a whisper.

"Amelia… giving up so soon?"

"Fuck you, Kiku."

"That's rude, you know," Kiku said, his quiet voice heavy with sarcasm. "And here I was trying to help you."

"What?"

"There is a chest at the back of the cave," he explained. "Open it."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Do you have any other choice?"

With a sigh, I heaved myself up and walked down to the back of the cave where I did indeed find a chest – it must have been a prize box, like the question mark cubes in Mario or the different hidden areas in Amnesia. Kneeling down, I slowly and cautiously opened the lid of the chest, blinking at what I found inside.

A change of clothes, a mini first aid kit, a flashlight and a map of the island…

"Why are you helping me like this?" I asked.

"I helped Ivan find the machete," Kiku said nonchalantly. "It's only fair I give you tools for your advantage."

"I think Ivan has a better advantage than me," I spat. "He's the one with the fucking machete."

"And you are more clever," Kiku replied. "Brute force and weapons can get you so far. Speed, wit and tenacity get your further. Just remember that."

I was left in silence for a few minutes until I remembered just how cold I was. I changed my clothes – I was now in shorts, a tight t-shirt, and well-suited boots for this environment. I looked like I had just stepped out of a Tomb Raider game, but that suited me just fine.

But that was back then. One year ago. I had made that cave my secret base, using chalk I found to count off how many days I had been there by scratching a tally onto the walls. 380 days. It was so difficult to look at that wall and all its white scratches.

Since that day, I learnt to stay well away from wherever Ivan was – and I could usually tell by the sound of another victim falling. You see, Kiku didn't keep it at just myself and Ivan after 2 months had passed. He started to lure in new victims and send them into the game to fight with us – but Ivan was cunning, he struck them sometimes when they didn't even stand a chance.

That was what was happening nearby right now – a woman was screaming nearby as Ivan's laugh, now with a robotic tinge to it, drowned her out. It was best they died now though… The longer they stayed in the game, the more chance they'd turn into Ivan – and slowly me… DNA changes, even humans can adapt to a new environment. In this case, the longer we stay inside the game, interact as we are meant to and follow the program, the faster our DNA changes into binary code.

If one were to look closely at my arm, at the scar on my forearm from Ivan's first attack, you could see tiny areas were already turning into binary code. Ivan, with his murderous attitude to the game, was becoming the biggest glitch any game could ever have – he was a virus and one hell bent on killing anything in his path.

The screaming soon came to an end, so I slipped out of the cave again and around the driest path I could reach at that moment. I had learnt the map of the island by heart, knowing that if he was down east then I should head west. The new girl had lasted 3 days – a new record. Ivan was slacking.

That would mean that a new person would be on their way any day now – Kiku would be getting bored what with me just wandering around like I was on holiday and Ivan killing everyone who reared their head. I walked along a field above the waterfall, watching as the stream that made up the spray for the falls flowed along peacefully. I was getting bored of this place and its same old stuff – I never ventured away from my level… I was still level one. As was Ivan, but that was because he was so consumed with murdering… The island's levels were in different places scattered around – tombs, graveyards, jungles, oceans, caves… and of course the volcano at the top… I knew that I had to work with someone to be able to get out of there alive, but I didn't know if I could trust anyone who came into the game once they were given Kiku's message…

Dropping to the ground, I watched as the beam appeared and the silhouette of a person became clear to me as they were lowered to the ground. They weren't far away but I knew that Ivan would have seen the beam too…

I had a choice: return to my cave and wait for another to die or find them and try and leave the game with them.

Usually, I would pick my cave… but not this time.

Sprinting, I hurried in the direction of the beam as fast as I could – I was used to the terrain now, and my boots were still as good as the day they were given to me in that chest. I skidded down a dirt slope as I reached the edge of the cliff I'd climbed up, getting to the bottom easily and looking around.

Slumped against a rock was a blonde man, no older than 22, dressed in a shirt, trousers and shoes. He was out cold, but it looked like his eyes were hidden by his rather large eyebrows. Gulping slightly, I ran over and knelt beside him – trying to find any form of ID before he woke up.

"Aha," I whispered, pulling something out of his pocket. I opened the leather holder and blinked at the police badge before me. "Detective Inspector Arthur Kirkland… An officer…" I looked down at the man as he groaned and started to stir, watching as his eyes opened and he looked up at me with the brightest green I had seen since being in the game.

"Ah!" he yelped, jumping back from me in shock – clearly he hadn't been expecting to see anyone so close to him. "Wait… You're face… I recognise you! Amelia Jones?"

I blinked in shock. "How do you know my name?" I asked, looking down at the badge in my hands. DI Kirkland… "You're a policeman… But…"

"Detective Inspector," he said, taking the badge from me. "Where are we?"

"Cyber Island," I explained, pulling him to his feet quickly. "Please… Come with me now! I can explain more when we're out of the open! It's not safe!"

"Amelia, I've been looking for you for over a year…" Arthur said, watching me in confusion. He was disorientated from the transfer and the shock of meeting me, but I had to get him somewhere safe.

"Please!" I begged, grabbing his hand and tugging. He soon got the message and followed after me.

Something told me more was going on than I had let myself be aware of…

_**Notes:**_

**And here we have chapter 1! Technically 2 but with a prologue stuff gets fucked up, y'know?**

**I'm really glad you guys are enjoying this story so far. It's gonna get more darker and dramatic soon so I appreciate your patience :D**

**OH! And go check out Tabaotsi's drawing of this on DeviantArt! She made an amazing picture of the monologue at the end of the prologue and it's freaking amazing!**

**R&R please :D**


	3. Chapter 2

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Two**

I walked ahead of Arthur as I knew more about the island than he did. I knew that he was taking his time thanks to the motion sickness created by the Vortex, but I had very little patience for things like that – this was the first time in a year that I was putting myself into the line of fire, and I knew that Ivan was after me more than he was any of the other players.

In all honesty, my patience with Arthur was growing thinner by the minute simply because he was showing his weaknesses right there at the very beginning of his game. I hadn't been as obvious as he was being and as much as I should have been sympathetic towards him in this situation, I just couldn't be. I had been stuck in that game for a damn year and the first time that I stick my neck out for somebody they end up falling behind more than I did.

I lost track of time. I didn't know what the time was or how long we had been walking, but before me I could see the river that would lead into the waterfall that fell before my cave. There was no chance in hell of me taking Arthur back there – for one, if Ivan was nearby and saw us anywhere near the entrance, he would know where I had been hidden all that time. And if Arthur were to die before me after Ivan had gained that knowledge it probably wouldn't be too long before I fell too. But, that wasn't the only thing that I was worried about – in truth, I was scared that Arthur would figure out who the stronger player was and team with him. If I were to reveal to Arthur my true hideout, he could turn against me and use that knowledge to his advantage. He may be able to kill both myself and Ivan and get himself out of the game like that.

Sighing, I paused beside the river and looked behind me at Arthur as he stopped to take in some deep breaths. His skin was paler than before and from how he was swaying, I could tell that he was about to do something I hadn't done since I ate a bad bit of meat in this game. I went over to him and helped him down onto his knees, holding onto him as he leant over the edge of the cliff and vomited. It was an awful sound – I didn't really want to listen to some random dude reaching but I knew that some people just couldn't handle the power that the Vortex held. With a little effort, I got him sitting upright and helped him lean against a rock – there was a gentle breeze blowing in from the Eastern side of the island, a good sign for some cooler weather coming in from the ocean, so I left him for a moment to cool down as I went to the river to refill my water bottle to rehydrate him.

There were so many questions going on inside my head at that moment – this man was a police officer, no a Detective, from the town that I had lived in. He said he had been looking for me that whole time I had been missing, so… was it just a coincidence or had my text actually managed to make its way out of this cyber universe and back into the world outside? I kept my eyes on the clean water making its way into the nozzle of my water bottle, feeling it splash against my dry warm skin – I had tanned quite a bit during my time on the island. It was something to do with the AI weather system, I figured. Certain parts of the island got better weather than others, and I had learnt that in times of good weather it was always sent in from the Eastern side of the island.

I was curious though as I screwed the lid back onto the bottle and took it over to the ill looking officer; why hadn't Kiku talked to us yet. It was a customary part of everyone's initiation into the game, he gave pretty much the same speech to every single new player so that they had some sort of chance at getting out of there alive. But he hadn't even piped up for Arthur – nothing was being said to him. Was it because he was with me and I would be able to tell him about the island and the rules and missions? Or was he a plant? A lie to bring me out into the open finally…

"Here," I said, thrusting the bottle into his hands and sitting down reluctantly beside him. "Drink up quick so we can make a move. I'm not waiting around all day."

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine," Arthur remarked, cracking one eye open slightly to look at me before taking a sip of the water. "Wow, how is this so clean?"

"I didn't create the game, I just have to play it," I sighed, looking around. There was no sign of Ivan yet, so he must have still been making his way around the island. "You have to speed up though. Every second we're out in the open like this is a second closer to dying – and I have survived this long for a reason."

"Have you killed people?" Arthur said, taking another large gulp of water. He poured a little over his head to bring his temperature down.

"No," I said harshly. "I haven't killed anyone. That's how I've survived. I stayed away from everyone. Now I'm doing something that I haven't done in a year and helping you cos from the looks of it, you won't stand a chance against Ivan."

"Ivan Braginski?" asked Arthur, handing the bottle back to me. He staggered to his feet though his strength hadn't totally returned yet, meaning that I had to get up quickly and steady him before he fell of the edge of the cliff.

"The one and only," I replied. "Now come on! Before he shows up!"

Shrugging his shoulders slightly causing them to crack, Arthur took a deep breath and started to follow me across the field. I knew of other places to hide thanks to scavenging trips I had taken to boost up my supplies – I knew of a second cave near the end of the river, another hidden by a waterfall. The river was connected straight down the middle of the island – there was a ravine near the foot of the volcano which created the first waterfall and the pattern continued down the island to the ground level where my cave was. No one had noticed that there were holes behind them so they were very comfortable places to hide out – and the noise of the running water drowned out any sounds of talking on the inside if you were quiet enough.

I couldn't help but glance at Arthur occasionally as we walked – one, to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't keel over again; and two, because he was the first human being that I had had proper contact with in a year. You have no idea how incredibly lonely the whole experience had been – you wouldn't have realised it from how I was acting, but I used to be sweet and bubbly. I could make friends with just about anyone, when my brother wasn't around that is, and Mom used to say that my smile could light up a room. I never had a cause to smile anymore, so the concept now seemed like a foreign subject. It seemed like a forgotten language to me… And yet here was Arthur – a flesh and blood, air breathing human being… With green eyes, blonde hair, eyebrows (my Lord, the eyebrows on that man could be used as a freaking shield), clothes… I could see the redness of blood flow in his cheeks from the heat and effort of vomiting, sweat mingling with the water he'd poured over his head. Looking at another human being was a feeling that had been taken away from me… and it had been manipulated into a concept that would get me killed.

At one moment, his eye caught mine and I could feel a heat forming in my cheeks. It was social anxiety flaw that I had developed thanks to my lack of human contact – but as soon as I was conscious of it, it grew and felt hotter despite my best efforts to stop it. He smiled a little at me before looking ahead, and for a moment I actually felt myself smile back.

Eventually, we got to the cave area. He was looking around the area with wide eyes – there were a few trees dotted around but not enough that you could call the area secluded or a forest, but it was shaded enough to keep the water relatively cool. It was like a small oasis in the middle of a barren desert and for the first time, I let myself feel secure enough to push every inhibition aside and simply dive into the pool of water. I closed my eyes as I first entered, embracing the cool water that flowed around the outside of my body like a soft blanket. I swam up to the surface and looked over at Arthur, raising my eyebrows as he stayed firmly in place beside the water.

"You're gonna have to get wet at some point," I said, smirking a little at the surprised expression on his face. "Look, just try and trust me will ya? There's nothing in here that's gonna hurt you and it'll cool you off quicker than pouring more of my water on your head."

"Fine…" he grumbled, moving to take his clothes off.

"Dude! Just jump in! You'll dry off soon enough and if I'm right there should be more… game appropriate attire where we'll be going next."

"Game what!?" he said. He sighed though and shook his head. "Whatever…" he muttered before jumping into the water a few inches away from me. I laughed as the water splashed me as he went under, blinking at the alien sound that escaped my mouth. As he came back up to the surface again, there was a smile on Arthur's face. "Wow, you're right that does help! Wait, what's wrong…?"

"N-nothing," I replied, shaking my head slightly.

"I heard you laughing just now, so there must have been something to change your mood so suddenly," Arthur pressed, tilting his head to get a better look at me.

"That… That's just the thing," I sighed. "I've not laughed for a very long time… It was a surprise to me."

His expression saddening ever so slightly, Arthur looked around us and up at the waterfall. "Where are we heading next then?" he asked, changing the subject before I became more conscious of my abnormal behaviour. It was only now that I was interacting with another human being again that I was realising just how dehumanised I had become over the past 385 days.

"We go under water then over to the bottom of the falls," I replied. "Get past the sprays and then go up."

Nodding, Arthur waited for me to lead the way so I ducked under the water once more and swam below the surface until I got past the waterfall. I took in a deep breath as I reached the surface once more and hauled myself up onto the damp rock platform that marked the entrance of the new cave. Arthur gasping behind me reminded me that he was there too, so I helped him out of the water and let him get his bearings as I wandered inside the cave and started to look around for the chest that should have been inside.

"How did you know about this place?" asked Arthur as he entered the cave too. I looked back at him and saw that he looked healthier than he had earlier.

"I've been here longer than you have," I replied, sitting down and leaning my back against the cave wall. Pointing down the far end, I made the motion for Arthur to continue down without me. "There's a chest down there. You should find what you need in there. Believe me, there is always a change of clothes cos this Lara Croft/Indiana Jones get-up that I've seen is a fucking God send."

Chuckling and shaking his head, Arthur walked down to the back of the cave and started rummage through his findings. "You're right, this stuff does look like it would belong in an Indiana Jones film. Though, I am no Harrison Ford."

"Nah, I'd say you'd be able to pass for a pretty good James Bond," I replied. "What about me?"

"What? Do you want to be a Bond girl?" came a cheeky reply. I could practically hear the smile in that tone.

"Totally," I said, smirking a little. "I'd take James Bond's double 0 and 7 any day. I mean, do I make a good Lara Croft?"

"Absolutely," he responded. "If I hadn't been looking for you, I'd have thought you were a genuine part of the game."

I looked up as I heard footsteps, smiling as Arthur walked back over to me wearing his Indie get-up and carrying his damp clothes. He sat down opposite me, tilting his head as he started to watch every little movement I made. It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Tell me how you got here then," he said, picking up a wet walkie-talkie from his pile of damp clothes.

"Before I say anything to you, you have to tell me about what happened to you," I said, shaking my head. "I've been here too long to just open up like that to anyone. Even a cop."

Arthur smiled a little and nodded in understanding. "I get it," he said, looking up at the cave roof and taking a deep breath. "You are my very first major case, you know. That town is quiet and nothing happens – the most I've had to deal with is a stolen bike or feuding neighbours. I'd been in the Force since I was 18 – I was a cadet and it progressed until I became the youngest the local team had ever enlisted. I'm only 22, you see. But then one day, your mother came into the station with your brother, Alfred. She was crying and barely able to stand without his help… She was saying about a text from you and how you weren't answering your phone to anyone… I was surprised. We started looking into it… We went to see Kiku Honda first and searched his lab. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and somehow he had an alibi. You and Ivan were nowhere to be found. We looked at CCTV and it showed the pair of you walking out… I honestly couldn't put my finger on it. Your mother got sick from the stress so your brother started to care for her but he kept on helping to try and find you. He never gave up… But the station did… I was angry with my boss when he concluded that you had simply ran away with this Ivan, that it was an elaborate prank… But I knew better. I started working on it by myself – eventually enlisting the help of a very talented IT manager in the station who said she knew you from school or something. We kept searching and she managed to get passed the firewall holding back the true footage of what happened to you. But it was so unclear, I couldn't pick out what had happened and neither could my boss… So he said no to a search. I went by myself and here I am."

"Alfred was helping to look for me…?" I said quietly. "You were all trying to look for me? Who is this friend?"

"Too many questions," Arthur said. "Answer me first. What happened?"

"I'd gone to the lab as usual to help with Kiku's video game production with him and Ivan," I explained. "I could hear shouting inside the lab so went to check it out. I snuck inside when I saw who it was – Ivan knew about the game and the dangers and was shouting at Kiku for even coming up with something like that. But Kiku knew I was there and that I had heard. He called me out and the shot me with that Vortex beam along with Ivan and sent us into the game. I woke up on the beach nearby and heard his voice. He said that only one of us is getting out of here alive and then as I was trying to find safety, Ivan attacked me. He's determined not to die. I got away though and hid. I sent the text and then I lost connection. That's it. Since then, I've been hiding out and… I've heard them. The victims that kept getting sucked into the game…"

"I tried to get my boss to see that those cases were connected with yours," Arthur said. "But he just wouldn't listen… Now we're both stuck here…"

"I don't want to kill anyone," I sighed. "He may have said a fight to the death, but he also said we have to beat all the levels. If we get through them and to the top of that volcano where the final level is… We could both get out of here alive."

"Sounds like a good plan," Arthur replied. "Now… about that friend of ours."

Before he could continue, a crackling sounded on the walkie-talkie – sparks started to fly from it, so Arthur dropped it onto the ground as we shifted out of the way. Before our eyes it started to change – it was very futuristic and metallic, a glowing green light in the middle of it and lines which were obviously speakers lining around the outside of it.

"What the fuck?" muttered Arthur, stepping closer to the device and picking it up again.

"Wow, your eyebrows are even worse in high-def, Arthur," said the device, its voice metallic but somehow mixed with an Italian accent.

"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed. "What is going on?"

"Lovina?!" Arthur snapped, looking at the device.

"The one and only," replied Lovina. "You never came back like you said you would so I did some digging."

"Shit, he's gonna know…" I muttered.

"Your friend doesn't know my skills, clearly," Lovina said. "Wait… Is that Amelia?"

"Lovina… Lovina Vargas?!" I blinked.

Arthur groaned and rubbed his temples. "Too much too soon…" he sighed. "You explain… I need catching up on this idiotic plan of yours too…"

Snatching the device from Arthur's hands, I looked at the green curiously. "Talk."

"Whoa whoa!" said Lovina. "Mind the pixels please. This took me a while to code! Yes, it's me. You never did pay that much attention to what I said at school did you? Short version of the story – I got such good grades at school and college for ICT that they kept an eye on me. But I started to be able to hack into information sources that the police didn't want people having access to so they hired me instead – you know, keep your friends close, enemies closer. As soon as I heard you'd gone missing, I was straight on trying to get into any bit of information that I could to find you. But it wasn't until recently that I made some breakthroughs. Arthur, here, went off to confront Kiku with the message to your brother and I that 'if I don't come back, keep looking'. I did. I managed to hack into Kiku's private folders. He has no idea that I got in! I found this game and tried to open it on my computer but it wouldn't work; so I modded my way in. He doesn't know I'm here, but on my screens I have maps of the entire island you're on! Cyber Island, he was totally creative with that name… But still! I can communicate with you which is the good thing. I accidentally muted his message to you guys though, so he kind of expects you to know it."

"Let me guess," I said. "'You are in my game – that beam sent you straight into my video game and the only way you are getting out is if you beat all the levels. Try not to die though. Oh, I'll give you help occasionally, but it's winner takes all – only one of you will be getting out alive. Welcome to Cyber Island.' That sound about right?"

"That was word for word…" Lovina replied. "Trust you two to get into crazy shit like this."

"Can you see us then?" Arthur asked.

"On one screen I have this," Lovina replied. "A good shot of Amelia's face – Amie, as horrible as this must be for you that island has done wonders for your complexion…"

"Lovina."

"Arthur," Lovina snapped sarcastically. "You know I work with 7 screens at all times. I have maps on a couple, the link on one, and on another I have a shot of Ivan on a beach and another has a shot of you two in a cave. By the way, Arthur, you need to work out a bit more."

"Oh fuck off," sighed Arthur. I looked at him for a moment before looking back at the device in my hands – he may have been frustrated with her, but Lovina was proving herself to be incredibly valuable at the moment.

"Lovina… is Alfred with you?" I asked.

There was a pause. "He is, yes," she replied. "Do you want to talk to him?"

"If he wants to talk to me…" I said quietly. I was very conscious of Arthur's eyes on me now. I listened carefully, there was rustling, like the sound of people swapping chairs.

"Amie?"

I closed my eyes and held my breath for a moment before looking at the device. "Alfred?"

"My God," he said. There was a deep intake of breath before laughter. I smiled. "I can't believe it's really you, Amie! I never stopped looking for you! Never! I know I'd managed to piss you off somehow and I want to get you back and make it better, okay?"

"Okay, Alfred," I said, sitting down finally. "I'm sorry I was such a bitch to you…"

"Don't sweat it," he said; his tone bright and happy. "We're here ready to give you help whenever you need it! We have eyes all over this dick so hang in there. You're getting out of there alive even if it's the last thing I do!"

_**Notes:**_

**And another chapter is done! I'm glad you guys are liking this so far!**

**Anyways, I've been talking to Tabaotsi about this AU cos she's been geeking out with it just as much as I have and helped me with ideas on the introduction of our lovely Italian nerd XD**

**It's an AU, I can do with her as I please and in this case she is insane with computers. She is my Garcia (Criminal Minds). But! In this case, she has the sarcasm levels of GLaDOS from Portal. So, beware for more wit :D**


	4. Chapter 3

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Three**

Hooking the walkie-talkie to my belt, I looked at Arthur as he had been watching me the whole duration of that conversation with my brother. His expression changed to a neutral one, like his police training had made him become this stoic person in a crisis out of pure habit. I rolled my eyes a little – in all honesty, he had looked much better with the expression he had before: he had been smiling, that kind of smile a person gets on their face when they've known something for a long time and it had finally came to light.

I know that meant that for the longest time I had been feeling second best to my brother, like no matter what I did I would always be outshone by him and that he loved to be better than me… That he hated me for the way I had acted towards him before I had been sucked into the game and that no one had been looking for me during the time I had been there… And just hearing his voice through the walkie-talkie, hearing the tone of sheer happiness at hearing me and talking to me again; his promise to get me out of that game no matter what… It made me feel better knowing that I was still cared for, that he really hadn't stopped looking for me over these past 13 months.

Hoisting my backpack up onto my back, I took a deep breath and tried to think of a plan. It was suddenly dawning on me just how dire our situation was now, and even though we had the promise of outside help, I still couldn't help but panic a little on the inside. There were so many things that I still didn't know about the game and that was near enough doubled for Arthur, so not only was I the one that had to play the guide, but I had to make sure that I kept a watch out for the pair of us. That was a lot of pressure.

"How did you beat the first level then?" Arthur asked me, folding his arms. I looked at him more surprised than I should have as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I haven't…" I replied, gripping the straps of my backpack tightly. Looking at the ground when his expression turned dumbfounded, I sighed and shook my head a little. "That's how I've managed to stay alive for so long, Arthur. Not helping people and not challenging the AI."

"AI?" he questioned. Faintly, I heard a tut in the walkie-talkie; clearly Lovina wasn't very patient with his lack of technical knowledge.

"Artificial Intelligence," I supplied. "Some of it is good and some of it is bad. I've come across some of the good AI over the past year and they know me and have learnt. But whenever I heard any of the bad AI coming, I have hid. You gain XP-"

"XP…?"

"Experience Points…" I sighed. "You gain the points when you defeat the AI but it gets more and more difficult the higher your level is. The number of points increase each level to pass to the next. I've gotten points accidentally. I have 25 out of 100."

"How many points does Ivan have?" asked Arthur.

"I honestly don't know," I shrugged. "I'm certain he's still level 1 though."

"How is that possible for him then?"

"He doesn't kill AI," I replied. "He kills the other players, and he's been after me this whole time."

Arthur nodded and looked round at the waterfall outside the cave entrance, his eyes narrowing slightly as he walked over to take a closer look. I watched him, knowing that what he had discovered was going to be a tricky subject for me to explain. He reached forwards and put his hand into the water flow, watching as it went over his skin – but his eyes were focused on the binary code that was visible close up.

"This water is made up of numbers…" he said, looking over to me. He looked genuinely amazed for a second until he saw my melancholy expression.

"It's binary code," I said, rubbing my arm consciously. Walking back over to me, Arthur put his dry hand on my arm and looked down at me.

"Tell me what's got you looking so worried," he said, the subtle hint of a demand in his tone. I sighed.

"Binary code is what makes up this entire world," I explained. "It makes the AI, the water, even the air… The longer that we are in this environment and the more we interact with the gameplay… the more our DNA changes… This isn't virtual reality; it's a reality all its own… and our bodies are capable of adapting like any creature…" I pulled the black band on my arm down slightly and revealed the thin scar that still resided on my arm from Ivan's first attack. Arthur leant down and looked closely at the wound, at the numbers binding my skin together… "I can tell how much of me is code and how much is human and thankfully that's as much as it is so far… But I've been breathing this in for a year, drinking the water… It's gonna be a lot harder to get me out of here than you…"

Arthur shook his head and gave me a determined look. "We are getting out of here together," he said. "I've been searching for you for over a year, Amelia. Now I have you I am not leaving you until you are safe again."

"You might not have the choice…" I replied, letting out a soft sigh. "There is one more thing that you have to know about this place."

"What's that?"

"Copyright is something that Kiku isn't concerned with," I said. "I mean, I'm dressed as Lara Croft and you're dressed like Indiana Jones… This game wasn't designed to be sold, it was designed to trap people and kill them whilst he watched and didn't have to get his hands dirty… That means there are elements from other games in here… and he updates with each new popular game of the time. I mean, the other day I saw Ivan running around with this weird spinning hook on his hand. And… well, one thing we'll have to keep vigilant of is something I've heard a couple of the longer-lasting victims screaming about… They talked about a tall man with no face in the trees."

"For Christ's sake…" Arthur groaned. We looked down as the walkie-talkie crackled slightly, the sounds of the microphone being pulled out coming to our ears.

"Amie, did you describe who I think you did…" came Alfred's panic-filled voice. I sighed and unhooked it, holding it up to look at it.

"I did, but I've not seen it the whole time I've been here so there's really nothing to worry about," I said. "Now just wait till we need you, okay."

Hooking it back onto my belt, I motioned for Arthur to follow me out of the mouth of the cave. I kept quiet; looking through the water to make sure that there was no one out there waiting for us to come outside. I had no idea if anyone else knew about the caves really; I just assumed they didn't because of how long I had managed to survive in my cave at the end of the river. Taking a deep breath, I walked around the edge of the entrance until I found the dry path that all of the caves seemed to have, hauling myself up a ledge and slipping onto the grass on the other side. I looked round and helped Arthur over, wasting no more time before we started our trek into the trees.

"It's going to be dark soon," I commented, looking up at the sky as the colours started to turn gradually darker. I had no idea what time it really was but I always could tell roughly by the types of colours that I could see above me – at that moment the sky was slowly being died with a soft pink colour, and as the time progressed the sky would eventually turn a deep gold/red before the purples and blacks took over and the AIs of the night took over.

We had to find some other form of shelter before the evening drew in totally – the caves weren't safe now that Ivan was on the hunt again, so it was time to do some quick thinking in order to keep us safe. Personally, I wanted to stay far away from that hook thing he had been wielding the other day. I kept glancing back at Arthur knowing he must have been freaking out more on the inside than he was showing on the outside – my first evening on this island was enough to give me a very good idea on how he was feeling.

I opened my mouth to say something, but then closed it and grabbed his hand. He looked at me oddly before I pulled him down to crouch behind a bush. I looked at him and put my index finger to my lips, looking at him urgently to try and press how imperative it was for him to keep quiet for a moment. He did so thankfully, glancing upwards and blinking at the sight that passed us.

He was just as tall and brutish as he had been the day we had come into the game, his silver hair messy from the length of time we had been here and cut in jagged lines from the times I had witnessed him try to cut it himself. He was in his own uniform – a harsher more intimidating combination of camouflage that my uniform didn't have and boots larger than both mine and Arthur's combined. Up his arms were the scars of many attacks and within his veins and scars were the many thousands of strands of binary code that were slowly making him the scariest malware software in the history of computers. On his arm still was the peculiar hook, so to find out more information on it, I unhooked the walkie-talkie from my belt for a moment and turned it so that the small camera that was inside could see Ivan Braginski stalking past us in search for Arthur.

Eventually he wandered out of sight, the breaths we didn't know we'd been holding in releasing and our bodies relaxing now that the immediate threat was gone. I looked at the walkie-talkie and shook my head before hooking it onto my belt again; deciding that for the time being it would be safe to just crawl along the length of the shrubs to get out of that area as soon as we could. Arthur followed my lead and eventually we got out of the forest only to find a site that I hadn't been to before.

"It's a house…" Arthur muttered, looking up at the 2 story building. "An actual house in the middle of the jungle… on a computer island… Seriously…"

"It looks familiar…" I muttered, walking closer to it. There was a stone wall fencing the house off from the rest of the island, dying trees hanging over the edge of it with browning leaves that contrasted so greatly from the rest of the area. The outer walls of the building were brown and pealing, the 2 windows side by side that were visible filthy with dust and grime. On the second floor there was balcony at the part that was visible and below it under the windows was a shelter. "I don't like this… What video game has a house that looks like that?"

"I wouldn't know," Arthur said, shaking his head. "Show it off to Lovina again and have her Google it or something like that hook."

"Good idea…" I muttered, unhooking the tool again and pointing it at the house. "Lovina… more for you to look into… Tell us where this came from… I can't put my finger on it…" Giving her enough time to get a good picture to look at, I hooked the tool back to my belt and looked around. "I have a really bad feeling about going in there, Arthur…"

"And Ivan could wander back this way any second…" he responded. It was true and I knew it, but there was just something I couldn't shake about that house. I really didn't like it. And the sheer fact that I knew Ivan used anywhere he could for shelter at this time of the day was just a statement of how bad this place could be. "Amelia, come on… Do we really have that much choice?"

"A house would be too obvious a hiding place," I argued. "Especially this one!"

"There's nowhere else for a while is there?" Arthur said. I shook my head. "Then that's settled right? The longer we stand out here arguing the more time there is for Ivan to come back!"

"…Okay…" I whispered reluctantly. "I don't like it though…"

Against my better judgement, we opened the rusted old gate between the two pillars of the wall and entered the old garden of the house. It was the creepiest experience of my life, and that is saying something coming from a girl sucked into a video game. I stayed close to Arthur as we reached the front door, watching as he reached forwards and took hold of the round door knob – the door was unlocked and swung open with an eerie creaking noise. Hesitantly, we crossed the threshold and looked around the first part of the house – there was a table near the door in line with the stairs which led to the corridor nearby us but turned to go upstairs. At the top was a small bit of plastering with a banister in the middle which allowed viewing of the rest of the corridor upstairs. I had a feeling that Kiku's Japanese roots were showing as the design of the doors looked highly like that culture. Not a single light was on but that was okay, we didn't want anyone to know we were in there.

"This is ominously creepy," Arthur observed, shutting the front door behind us.

"What's that weird smell…?" I whispered. It was pungent, ripe, like something was rotting.

"I have no idea…" Arthur replied, grimacing as the smell hit him too. "…This house couldn't be further away from anything on this island design wise… What game has he added here?"

"I know it but I just can't place it," I said, looking around. "And I'm regretting coming in here…"

"Well, let's look around and see if you can recognise anything," Arthur suggested. "If it gets bad then we'll leg it."

"If we can…"

_**Notes:**_

**I love this video game world. I really do. It means I can throw in shit I've seen and have an excuse :D**

**Yes, they are on an island but it's a fucking huge map. Have you never played any GTA games? The maps are fucking insanely huge.**

**Anyways, if any of you are able to suss out where Amelia has seen this house before just from the descriptions I've given then you are freaking amazing. All will become clear next chapter but still, have a shot at guessing about this place! And also what video game the hooks come from. Plus any other plot bunnies you think I might pull out of my magician's hat ;D**

**Later guys :D**


	5. Chapter 4

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Four**

I ran my hands over the brittle wood of the banister as I walked deeper into the house – it splintered under my touch, sharp and slightly painful. The paint was peeling and I had to hand it to Kiku for his dedication to detail – it looked as though it had been rendered in high definition or in real-world terms, built as though it were a real home for someone to move into. The only problem was it was so incredibly messy and the smell coming from the upstairs was disturbing – I could have sworn I heard flies buzzing around in a room upstairs.

I walked past the stairs and headed down the corridor, though it was too dark to see much of what was going on around me. I could feel Arthur staying close to me, and I, in fear, took hold of his hand to make sure we weren't separated. I felt his hand tense at my touch, but I never let go – he seemed to be the type that got sheepish when he was touched, but this was a life or death situation; we had entered a home without knowing what game it was from and whether it could be potentially deadly to us! Without knowing the story, we should never have entered this house, but it was too late now…

Tentatively, I reached my free hand forward and put it on the clouded glass of the door before it. I pushed it open slowly and looked inside; making sure it was safe before entering. We had found the kitchen, and luckily enough there was a flashlight on the counter near the fridge. I went to go get it, but paused and gasped as a woman appeared before me. She was translucent, glowing with a pearly light… She had a knife in her hands though, chopping something on an equally eerie chopping board. I stopped in my tracks in defence, watching as she stopped chopping and turned around to look at me. For one terrifying moment, I thought as she raised her knife she was about to attack me, but then I locked with the gaps where her eyes should have been and she disappeared.

Shaking my head, I moved forwards and took the flashlight, turning it on and pointing it around the room. I looked at Arthur, the officer giving me a worried expression. I knew that he was regretting coming in here just as much as I was now.

"Breaking news!" came Lovina's voice from the device on my belt, the suddenness making me jump out of my skin.

"What?" I hissed, unhooking it and holding it up.

"That hook that Ivan has comes from the video game _Bioshock Infinite_," explained Lovina. "It's called a Sky-Hook. In the original video game, it's used for travelling around on a system called Sky-Lines – however, it is also a melee weapon so can do a fuck load of damage if you get too near it…"

"And what about the house we're in," Arthur asked, leaning over my shoulder to look at the green light. I jumped slightly at how quickly and quietly he had managed to get behind me, but kept my face neutral. "We saw a ghost…"

"A ghost?" asked Lovina.

"Well, it was a highly rendered part of this house's gameverse," I sighed. "I could see the codes just about. But yeah, the character was definitely a ghost. She was a middle aged woman chopping something with a knife on a chopping board… But when she turned around and held her knife up, she had no eyes and then disappeared…"

"Alfred has an idea of what game you've wandered into," Lovina said. "But he's gone to go check something out…"

"So, basically our valve of technical knowledge has no information on the place we have just entered?" asked Arthur.

"Oh fuck off," Lovina grumbled, the noise of typing tapping away in the background. "The size of your eyebrows is starting to make my systems lag, so if you don't mind."

Rolling my eyes, I hooked the device back onto my belt and continued to look around the room. There didn't really seem to be much more for us to find in the kitchen, so I motioned to an aggravated and scowling Arthur to follow me to explore more of the house. I could hear him grumbling about Lovina and I knew that he was probably one of those people that took things further to heart than he was letting on – and given the climate of the situation we were currently in, he was probably harbouring a lot of emotions.

"Where should we go next?" he asked. I turned back to him and frowned a little in thought. I really didn't know where we should go look next, the whole house was just giving off a vibe that I really didn't like – and I know I probably sound like a broken record, but it was true…

"We should just leave…" I said, rubbing my arm. "I really don't like it in here…"

"Okay…" said Arthur after a moment. Smiling a little, I walked with him back to the hallway and over to the front door. But that was when the device made a noise again. Sighing, I paused and picked it up again and looked at it in frustration.

"This had better be good," I grumbled.

"Get out of there now," urged Alfred. I blinked at the fright in his tone.

"We were just heading out…" I replied.

"I know the game that house is from!" he continued. "And the movie! It's..."

I never got to hear the end of that sentence. His voice was cut off by something else, a noise that chilled me to the core and brought back the memories of many sleepless nights. Through the speakers of the device came a deep croaking noise, like someone was choking and it was stuck on repeat. I stared wide eyed at the device, my hand starting to shake as I looked away back to the top of the stairs. Arthur was looking at me in confusion, his attention turning to where I was looking.

"What the fuck…" he whispered, staring at the small boy crouched down at the top of the stairs behind the banister. His white hands were clutched tightly around the wood, his black eyes staring at us silently.

"T-Toshio…" I muttered, not taking my eyes off of the small boy. His eyes never left us, his stare eerie. I could somewhat register that Alfred was trying to talk to us again, but everything was blurring into one horrible montage as we both realised what we had just walked into – I knew the game and film, but Arthur only knew the film. "We're in Ju On… Ju On: The Grudge…"

"They made a fucking game of this shit?!" exclaimed Arthur, looking at me desperately. I nodded solemnly, turning around quickly and grabbing at the door knob. I grunted in fear, twisting and turning it but some force was keeping the door closed. "Wait… Doesn't the guy die at this part?!"

"The girl dies in the game, so don't think like that," I shouted at him. I turned back around and made sure that the device was hooked on my belt again before freezing at a noise at the top of the stairs. The croaking… It got louder, Arthur stepping closer to me as a thud sounded.

What we saw next was just like it was in the film… Her pale white hand stained with crimson clawed at the wood of the stairs, her fingers contorted and broken. She pulled herself down the stairs, her beady black eyes staring behind her dirty black hair. The croaking got louder, hisses and chokes sounding as she continued to crawl down the stairs towards us – Arthur tried to open the front door again, but it was no use; she was programed to go through things this way but we were not.

That's where I realised we had the advantage. She and her codes had been ripped out of another game, even in this game she was forced to go through the motions of the original – so when she was at the front door…

"Arthur, run!" I gasped, clutching at his hand and pulling him away from the door. He looked at me in confusion but followed me nonetheless, keeping as far away from the stairs as we could as we passed them. "There has to be a back door…. Some way out…"

"There was a door in the downstairs bedroom remember!" Arthur said suddenly, swapping our order and pulling me in that direction. "Remember, she washes the old woman on the porch outside her bedroom which leads to the back garden. We just leave out there and climb the wall!"

Nodding, I ran into the bedroom with him and slammed the door shut behind me. I could still hear that God awful croaking in the background and wanted to be out of there as soon as I could. We hurried over to the side door and pulled it open, only to fill the air with a mixture of screams and shouts as we slammed it shut again – she was out there, her head zooming in and croaking at us.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING THERE?!" Arthur shouted.

"I don't know…" I breathed, my hands shaking. "She does that at the front door… When you first open a door in the escape… And then she…"

"AMIE, TURN AROUND!"

I blinked at the sound of my brother's sudden shout, turning around quickly to see the girl stood in the corner of the room reaching for me. I screamed and moved aside fast, watching as she stared at us and continued her walk towards us.

"If she's there now…" Arthur muttered, pulling the door open again. Thankfully, this time she stayed behind us. Tugging me outside with him, Arthur ran across the grass of the back garden and helped me up onto the top of the wall first. I then pulled him up and we jumped to the other side, running as fast as we could away from that building and not looking back.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

By the time we had run out of breath, we had managed to find ourselves deep in the next part of the forest, right in the opposite direction to where Ivan had been walking earlier. I dropped to my knees and panted harshly, looking over at Arthur as he fell down onto his backside. He drew his knees up and rested his elbows on them, carding his hands through his hair and keeping his eyes closed.

We were both in a state of shock from what had happened, and as much as I hated myself for thinking it if we had just listened to my gut then that wouldn't have happened. I told him we shouldn't go in there when we had no idea what was inside. I fucking told him, but did he listen to me? No! I wasn't going to voice my frustrations to him though; he was in enough shock as it was I really didn't need him getting upset along with it. Besides, we needed each other to get out of here alive.

"You okay?" I whispered, a tremor in my tone. He nodded silently, not opening his eyes or moving from the position he had gotten himself into. I watched him awkwardly, a little worried that the realisation was settling in. I remember when it happened to me, when the realisation that I was in a world out of my control and twice as deadly kicked in… I couldn't move for a few days, I just stayed curled up in that cave staring into space…

"Will she follow us?" he finally muttered, opening his eyes and looking at me. "In the film, she follows and kills all the people who enter the house…"

"In the game, she follows and kills the family that live in the house," I replied. "I'm not sure if she will or not. It's like he's copied and pasted the codes from that game into this one and managed to make it blend in like that house is some random place in the woods… I really don't know so we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled for any signs of creepy Grudge Girls…"

"How are you so… calm?" asked Arthur. "How can you sit there and talk so jokingly about that character when you've been in this hell for a year?"

"Because it's just as you just said," I explained. "She's a character and I've been here a year. One long year where I've learnt to survive, and as scary as it may seem you have to learn quickly if we're going to get away with this."

The area we had found was highly sheltered and looked like a den a child had made thought it really was just how that bush had 'grown', so we decided to make it our camp for the rest of the evening. I was very surprised Ivan hadn't heard us screaming, but knew not to let my guard down just in case – I didn't want to have a run-in with the Sky-Hook.

I unhooked the device from my belt again and looked at the light, smiling a little.

"Amie…" came Alfred's voice, deep with fret. "I'm sorry I never found out sooner."

"It's okay," I replied. "We got out of there okay."

"You're both okay?" asked Lovina. I nodded, glancing at Arthur as he shifted closer to me to look at the light too.

"We are both fine," he said. "Be careful, Lovina. You almost sound as though you care."

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "Who's stupid idea was it to go in there again?" she said. "Oh yeah, yours!"

"And I regret it so drop it," Arthur sighed. "What time is it out in the real world? Is it dark like it is here?"

"It is dark," Alfred said. "And it's about… 10 at night."

"Ready for your first night on Cyber Island, Arthur?" I said.

"Why?"

"Cos there are night creatures," I replied simply. He grimaced.

"We'll keep a check on you both," Lovina said. "And we'll wake you if anything comes too close. We won't make a sound, just a vibration."

"Okay…" I said, hooking it to my belt again. I settled down on the ground when Arthur shifted, smiling a little as he stayed reasonably close to me. "Do you have a gun?"

"What?" he asked me, taken by surprise.

I grinned. "Do you have a gun? Big bad detective man."

"No, I don't have a gun," he chuckled. "What is it with you American's and guns?"

"Don't stereotype me," I smirked. "I can do it right back!"

"Hit me with your best shot."

"Pip pip cheerio!" I grinned. "Blimey, Guvna! Off up the apple and pears, to get some tea and crumpets and see the Queen! Our Corgi's are doing just bloody marvellous!"

I actually made him laugh which brought a wider smile to my face. The evening continued like that until we fell asleep and thought I was slept with a smile on my face, I knew the next day we would have to work hard to make it past our first level…

_**Notes:**_

**This was such a bitch to write and I am so sorry for the delay… Busy busy bee… **

**Anyways, I'll leave you with this and see what happens cos no one seems to review anything anymore…**

**Oh! And Kylee, you guessed awesomely. To the lovely person who thought Oni was coming, you were close – I was tempted to do that but I watched The Grudge the day I wrote that chapter and it stuck. **

**See ya.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Five**

I woke to the feeling of a soft breeze on my skin. It was the first time that I had slept outside of the cave in a year, and it was a truly invigorating feeling. Through the canopy I could feel the soft rays of sunshine that were slowly breaking through warming my skin in a peculiar contrast to the breeze, but the two feelings complimented each other so very well that I laid there in a comfortable silence for a length of time I could not measure.

I was genuinely surprised that we had managed to sleep through the entire night without a moment of danger – even when I was in the cave I was alert and awake at random hours of the night, thinking that the breaking of a branch was more than what it really was. I guess it was because I had been alone for so very long that I had forgotten that not everything was out to kill me, but my instincts had managed to help me survive through this game so far so I wasn't going to start ignoring them now… I just had to learn to adapt them to allow Arthur's opinions in too…

When I finally opened my eyes, I had to shield them from the bright beaming sunlight that was hitting my face. I should have realised that there would be sun in my eyes from the warmth I could feel, but I was just so content that the thought never really occurred to me. I sat up and looked around, smiling a little as I watched Arthur continue to sleep nearby me. He hadn't moved from his spot so close to me all night, and even though I was sure it would be out of fear for his first night in some ways I couldn't help but wonder whether he was trying to keep me safe too. I hoped so as it would be nice to have someone want to protect me again, but the concept was so foreign I didn't want to get my hopes up too high.

Sighing, I crossed my legs and rested my elbows on them to lean my chin in my hands. I couldn't help but sit and watch Arthur sleeping, as creepy as it must have seemed… I hadn't been around people in a very long time, not any that were up close and depending on me at least. It was a curious feeling sitting so close to him, being able to watch his chest rising and lowering slowly as he breathed, his face creaseless with the peace of sleep. I wondered what he was dreaming about to make him look so calm, and whether the realisation of waking up again would wipe that look off his face completely.

I remembered my very first day on the island, the first after I had had my first sleep in the cave. For a moment, it was as though I had awoken from one dream into another but then I realised that it was reality… I really was inside this death trap of a video game and fighting for survival against a psychopath intent on killing me… I almost had a meltdown, but I forced myself to keep calm and carry on as though nothing was different…

Clearing my through slightly, I looked up at the canopy and let out a soft sigh. I wasn't sure whether I was as content as I had originally thought I was now that I was properly conscious. The memories of the night before we flooding back to me like a film in fast forward – I remembered that horrible girl and her long croaking, the smells inside that house of decaying corpses, the sheer terror I felt as my heart sped up. I had never been so scared in all of my life, even on the day when I had arrived on the island I hadn't felt that kind of fear. That was adrenaline pumping through me as the intimate voice of Death tried to call me in. But Death wasn't taking me just yet.

I could feel the sunshine starting to get stronger, the heat on the back of my neck intensifying. It was comfortable still, but getting to that stage when you know you are going to start dehydrating and become dizzy. I put my hand on the back of my neck and felt the heat radiating from my skin – it was probably quite red but I couldn't really tell. Shifting out of that position, I moved to a shadier part of our little hideaway and sighed again.

"What's the matter?" Looking down, I smiled a little as Arthur looked up at me sleepily from the ground. I shook my head and rubbed my arm. "Tell me."

"Nothing's the matter," I replied honestly. "I was just thinking about our progress so far and about this island."

"It's very warm today, huh?" he said, leaning up on his elbows. "I've never really seen sunshine this bright. England gets sunny from time to time but never to this extent. Not that I can remember anyway."

"It depends on where you are in America to get heat like this," I said. "Daddy took us to different places each vacation before he died. Up north it was colder, wetter… Down south it was generally warmer and sunnier… East was cooler, West was warmer… So many different weather systems, but it is a bigger country than England so…"

"Isn't Disney Land Florida larger than 17 countries?" he asked. I nodded. "And Florida in general is larger than the entire UK."

"Why are we talking about Florida again?"

"Don't you think it looks like America's dick?"

"Dude, seriously?!"

He laughed and sat up properly, grinning at me. I smiled back, but couldn't help but silently question how he was being so goddamned calm in our situation. Then it hit me. I was alone when I had woken up that day… He had me.

I hitched my backpack back up onto my back and stood up quietly, peaking out of the bushes to make sure the coast was clear. When I looked back at Arthur, he was watching me curiously. "We have to make a move to find a fresh source of water," I explained. "I have food but the water gets too warm to drink in my bottle overnight."

"Fair enough," Arthur said. "And is it safe to go?"

"Yes," I replied. "I think."

"You think?"

"I can't see anyone, but that doesn't mean there isn't anyone there."

"Well, that's vaguely ominous…"

"I'm a riot, huh," I smirked, walking out from our hiding place. Chuckling, he followed me and we started our trek across the island. I had to admit that Kiku had created an incredibly beautiful setting if it weren't for all the imminent threats of death and destruction. Really, if he wasn't be an evil dick he could have created something that would bring him in a lot of money! Think about it, this island could be the easiest holiday destination to create! People could have paid him to spend time on this perfect island with no threats of death, pain or becoming a part of the game… It could have been amazing.

But like every villain, he took it down the wrong path and used his genius for the destruction of society…

I didn't really have a clue where we were heading, I was just hoping that at any moment we would come across any sign of water or decent shelter, or even the area that would mean we could level up. I will be honest in saying that I was keeping that little piece of information away from Arthur for the time being – surviving The Grudge had brought our points up to the amount where we could turn to Level 2, but I wasn't sure where the level bar was. We needed to get to the right area to level up, but any interaction with the game levelled us up – surviving and killing...

We wandered for a while, going in no particular direction. It could have been north, it could have been west for all I knew at that moment and it was slowly killing me to think that I could be leading us both into danger. The strain of the heat and lack of water was starting to get to us, I could see Arthur's shoulders slumping and even my breathing was starting to get heavier. But thankfully I heard the gurgling of water… Heading towards it quickly, I walked into another clearing and grinned brightly at the large pool of clear clean water. I wasted no time in jumping into the water, smiling as it swirled around me and cooled me right through to my bones. I grinned and looked around when I felt the water move suddenly, watching the swirl of bubbles as Arthur jumped in too.

Rising to the surface, I pushed my hair back out of my face and looked around us before resuming my cool down. Arthur swam over to me with a smile on his face, watching as went to the side of the lagoon to take my backpack off and pull the water bottle out. Replacing the water, I sighed contently before putting it away and the pack back on my back. I dunked under the water and carefully drank some before returning to the surface and smiling brightly again. Watching him for a moment, I followed Arthur out of the lagoon and through the tree again; blinking at the sight before me as we found we were on the next level up of the cliffs.

"Wow," he said, looking around.

"You can say that again," I said, moving next to him. I sighed slightly and sat down on the grass, glancing as Arthur joined me.

"Seriously," he sighed. "What's the matter?"

"…What's waiting for you when you get out of here, Arthur?" I asked quietly. "What's your life been like before I dragged you into this hell?"

Startled for a moment, it took Arthur a few seconds before he realised what I meant – he looked out to sea, deep in thought. "I live alone. I have very few friends, and even some of them I end up arguing with because they do such stupid things… My family is large, but I rarely see anyone… You see, I'm the second youngest in my family – my elder brother Scott was… he's never really liked me… at all… And I never really liked him. He was an arse – he smoked, drank, came home at awful hours of the night… He was just horrible, and he made it blatantly obvious he wanted nothing to do with me. He's 25 years old, and moved to Scotland when he was 18 to put physical distance between us. Then there's Bryn and he is definitely one of the only relatives I'm still remotely close too… He moved to Wales when he was 18 for uni but stayed there – he comes to visit a lot though and I go to see him. He's 24. Next are the twins, Aednat and Ryan – they both live in Ireland, though Aednat lives in the Republic and Ryan in Northern. They're a mix… 23 years old and…" he sighed, "Ryan tries to remain as neutral as he can, but Aednat just hates all of us. Well, me in particular. So yeah… My younger brother, Peter, he's just turned 18. He calls me a jerk and I call him a brat but," he chuckled, "I like him. He's a good kid. Mum and Dad are great either way. They hate that we all argue so much but they do what they can."

"Wow…" I said quietly, looking at my feet.

"What about you?"

"A mother and brother who still don't realise what they put me through…" I sighed. He looked at me curiously. "Mom never really paid attention to me much. All her focus was on Alfred. He was the Golden Boy – everything he did was great and anything I did was nothing in comparison. I got straight A*s and a nod. He got 1 A, a bunch of Bs and a C – he got cash, presents, praise… That was why I got angry with him that day… He got everything he ever wanted and never understood… I worked! Damnit, I had a job when I left school! I was earning and saving and growing… He still got everything from Mom… Everything! And I'll tell you the truth… Recently, I've been in two minds about leaving this place… Cos… I didn't want to go back to being… unloved… Alfred had girls swooning over his looks… I had guys throwing things at me, calling me all the names under the sun… Fat, ugly, stupid, Yank, dick, whore… He had Sakura at the prom… Not sure who he has now… But I have no one… That's why I was so surprised anyone was looking for me… I didn't think I'd be missed at all…"

There was an uncomfortable silence until a crackling happened and then: "WHY DID YOU NEVER FUCKING TELL ME THAT?!" I jumped and looked at the device still hooked to my belt. "THAT WAS WHY YOU WERE ANGRY WITH ME?! BECAUSE… I… I never knew… I'm so sorry…"

"It's not like you asked for more attention than me, Al…" I sighed.

"But still…"

"I'm sorry…" I sighed. "I'm sorry I said anything…"

"You needed it off your chest," Arthur said, glancing down at the device. "I know how that feels."

"I'm the one who should be sorry," Alfred said.

I was about to answer when I was knocked backwards by a wall of heat. It wasn't fire, just air, but it came at us both so suddenly that we had no time to react. I looked at Arthur as we hit the ground before turning to see a figure I never wanted to come across…

_**Notes:**_

**DUN**

**DUN**

**DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**

**I'm sorry for the delay. It's been a long ass week. I was sick, then I went to see Iron Man 3, then shit hit the fan in my class and war nearly broke out… work, sunshine, barbeques and so much more! It's awesome…**

**Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the series :) Love yas!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Six**

My eyes widened as took in Ivan's form up close for the first time in over a year and I had to say that it was nothing like it had seemed from afar. He had truly turned into a monster – his eyes, already violet and cold, now glowed like they were made from LED or plasma lights; he was more muscular than before too, well-built and tougher looking than even Alfred had been; he wore a uniform Arthur and I, but his was torn and stained with the blood of the people he had slaughtered…

If I had been scared earlier when I had watched him walking through the woods, it was nothing to how I was feeling seeing that sadistic grin on his face again. I hadn't noticed many of the altered details of his appearance the other day, and seeing them there and then… His clothes looked like that of Dr X from the Action Man universe, except for the weapon on his arm… I remembered that that particular villain had a mechanical arm, but on Ivan's was the Sky-Hook, already spinning and threatening to slice into either myself or Arthur at any moment.

I scrambled to my feet and stood my ground, barely glancing at Arthur through the corners of my eyes as he did the same. We were unarmed and defenceless compared to Ivan who had learnt how to fight well over the past year – it almost made me regret all those times I had ran away and hid in my cave when I heard the screaming starting. I mean, I could fight as well as the next person, but Ivan was more than human now and he had an advantage over us like nothing I had ever come across before. For the first time in a long time I felt my life was in grave danger.

"Pst, Amie," came Lovina's voice from the Talkie. I glanced down at my belt but she hissed at me to stop. "He doesn't know that I'm here, remember! I've programed it so that he can't hear us, only you and Arthur. I've also made it so for the time being you can talk to Alfred and I through your thoughts rather than out loud."

"I've been waiting a long time for this moment," smirked Ivan, drawing my attention away from Lovina for a moment. I yelped and darted out of the way as the Sky-Hook span violently and sent him hurtling in my direction only to get his arm stuck in a tree behind me.

"Talk fast, Lovina," I thought. "We need help!"

"We have all the data up on the screen at the moment, Amie," Alfred said. "And this combat mode looks a lot like the one in _Dreamfall: The Longest Journey_. There are health bars above the three of you keeping measure but there's a hidden menu! You're experience points and Ivan is listed as PAI."

"PAI?" questioned Arthur, looking perplexed as he ran from an attack from our now freed opponent. I understood though.

"Partial Artificial Intelligence!" I grinned, yelping as Ivan managed to swipe at my arm. The bastard had cut across my forearm, right along the band that had been covering the scar he had given me on our first day. I slipped down onto the ground and held my arm, rolling out of the way as he lunged to strike me on the ground. I ran and hid behind a tree, watching from the distance as Arthur took the hint and hid in another area whilst Ivan tried to get his arm out of the ground.

"He's becoming a part of the game," Alfred explained. "Meaning that you can get XP from him to level up. You may not be able to kill him, but as it stands just one punch from each of you will level you up. And because the gameplay at the moment is laid out like _Dreamfall_, you can run away from the combat. If you get far enough away and are able to hide well enough that he can't find you then the combat mode should disappear and you can continue to find your way to the next part of the map."

"Unfortunately, we're closer to figuring out where the area you should be heading is and from the looks of what we have found out so far… it's not going to be very pleasant…" Lovina said.

"Tell me something I don't know…" I sighed, glancing round and screaming as I slipped down to the floor to avoid being struck in the face with the Sky-Hook. Running out of my hiding place, I went back to the centre of the cliff top and watched as Ivan stalked out of the woods like a cat that had cornered its prey. "Just one punch?"

"Or kick or hit… just make sure something you do hits him," Alfred said. I nodded and psyched myself, glancing over at Arthur as he ran out from his hiding place to stand by my side. Ivan smirked.

"Oh you're making this so much easier for me," he said, before starting to sprint towards us. Looking at Arthur for a moment, I nodded and dropped to the floor. He followed my lead, both of us sticking out our legs and hitting the Russian in his shins. I blinked as a sudden round of music – like a fan fare – sounded around us, most likely the signal that we'd levelled up. It was only when I looked round that I realised that Ivan had tripped and went flying straight for the cliff edge which he fell over. I daren't look over the edge to find out where he had gone, knowing all too well that he was perfectly capable of grabbing onto something or using the Sky-Hook to latch onto a stone or root to stop his fall.

Like Alfred had said, we couldn't kill Ivan just yet.

Letting out a heavy sigh I got to my feet and looked at Arthur, finally noticing how he was holding his waist.

"Arthur?" I asked, moving closer to him just in time to catch him as he tried to stand up. "Whoa there… Let's get you out of here…"

Though his footsteps were like Bambi learning to walk, I managed to help Arthur get out of the area of the attack and back down to the lagoon. I would have made us stop there but figured that Ivan would check there first if he hadn't fallen all the way down the cliff. Secretly I wished he had gone all the way down those hundreds of feet and hit the beach but that would make me just as evil as him…

Doing some quick thinking, I took more of Arthur's weight and helped him round the other side of the lagoon and down an old path. It was damp still, meaning that the water from the lagoon's source would be nearby. Breaking through another clearing, I smiled as I was correct about a larger source of water breaking off into small streams at the end of the path. I helped Arthur sit down at the edge of the creek, opening his shirt and pulling it off of his body to wash the blood off it. Before I started the washing though, I saw the cut on his waist. It was deep and bleeding heavily and it was starting to make me panic.

"Uh…"

"Are you okay?" groaned Arthur, lying back on the grassy bank. I shook my head at him and started to rummage through my backpack for the first aid kit that I still carried around with me.

"Don't be so stupid…" I muttered. "You're the one fucking bleeding to death at the moment so don't ask me about how I am."

"You're bleeding too," he observed.

"Yeah, but not as heavily as you…!" I replied. "Shit, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I thought the blood seeping through my shirt would have made it pretty obvious," Arthur said through gritted teeth. Looking around quickly, I pulled out a cloth from the First Aid Kit and dipped it into the water.

"Okay… this is going to sting a bit…" I said.

"But it's water…"

"In this world, the water helps you heal faster…" I replied. "But in an open wound – especially one as deep as yours – it's going to sting straight away." Arthur gritted his teeth and nodded that I could proceed, so I carefully started dabbing at his wound to clear away the blood and start the healing process. He hissed and kept his teeth gritted to keep himself from shouting out, panting as I took the cloth away and put some cooling cream on and forced him to sit up slightly so I could wrap the quickly healing wound up in a bandage. He watched me the entire time I wrapped the bandage around his waist, his eyes not leaving my hands as I tied it securely but hopefully painlessly.

"Thanks…" he said quietly, taking the cloth from where I had left it and dipping it into the water. I watched him curiously before wincing a little bit as he cleaned the wound on my arm.

"You don't have to do that," I said. "I'm fine…"

He looked me in the eyes, and it was only at that point that I realised just how close together we were. I gulped quietly, locking eyes with him. "Now who's being an idiot?" he commented, smirking at me a little. I chuckled a little and let him continue to sort my arm like I had his arm, only looking away from his face when I felt the bandage securely wrapped around my left bicep.

I blushed a little as I became conscious of the fact Alfred and Lovina were likely watching us, rubbing the back of my neck before turning quickly and splashing some water up onto my face. I heard Arthur asking me if I was alright so I nodded – my face was hot and dirty and I wanted an excuse to not look at him.

"Let's find shelter," I said. "Temporary shelter that is… I have food we can ration, but after we've eaten we have to carry on."

"Carry on where?" asked Arthur. "We have no idea what the area we need to head to next is…"

"I have a vague idea," I replied. "I'm just waiting for Alfred or Lovina to confirm my suspicions." I knew that I was starting to worry him with my defensive behaviour so looked him in the eyes again and smiled. "Trust me, okay? It's worked so far, hasn't it?"

"Fine," Arthur said, taking his damp shirt and putting it back on. It was no use trying to properly clean it, blood stains were a bitch to get out of anything – reality or virtual reality. I got up and helped him to his feet too, hitching my backpack up onto my back and looking for a direction to head in.

I think we had been walking for 30 minutes before we had finally come across a nice little area in the shade to sit and eat. It was safe and out of sight, not an obvious place for anything or anyone to be heading. Still I checked and double checked to make sure there were no surprise AIs lurking around in the shadows waiting to interact with us – I didn't particularly have the energy to go running around after AIs at that moment in time, and I was pretty sure that Arthur would need a little rest before we headed off towards another fun-filled adventure.

I sat down in the shade, watching as Arthur winced as he joined me down on the floor. I had to say he was handling everything that was happening extremely well for only his second day – and I was more than surprised with myself for suddenly becoming so easy on him. The day before I had been getting agitated with every mistake and question, questioning whether he was going to survive and why he was acting so weak when I had had to deal with everything by myself. Maybe it was because I finally had some company, real life company that was trying to kill me, that I was finally starting to regain my humanity.

Rummaging through my backpack, I pulled out some food and split it in half for Arthur and me to share. He took it gratefully and started to eat it, savouring every single mouthful. I smiled a little and joined him in our mini feast, conscious of the fact that every time I glanced at him I could have sworn I saw numbers in his eyes…

Swallowing the final bit of my food as he finished his, I shifted slightly and held his face – Arthur spluttering slightly and looking at me like I'd gone mad. Rolling my eyes I told him to stay still so I could check something, looking into the green of his irises and feeling my heart sink. I was right. It wasn't too bad but around the edges, the lighter shades of green were made up of binary code.

"Oh Arthur… I'm sorry…" I muttered, sitting down in front of him sadly. He looked at me curiously. "The combat and the healing of your wound… You've got numbers in your eyes, just a tiny bit of coding…"

"So do you," he sighed. I blinked. "I'm assuming that the scar forming on my waist will have coding too…"

"I didn't think of that…"

A moment of silence settled over us until the Talkie flashed once more.

"I've figure it out," Lovina said.

"Figure out what?" asked Arthur.

"Why you two should just kiss already."

"LOVINA," I shouted, embarrassed. "Alfred's not there is he?!"

She laughed. "You two are fucking hilarious to tease," she said. "Nah, Alfred's gone to quickly get us some iced tea."

"You're a bitch," Arthur said. "Now would you please just tell us what you've figured out?"

"Where you have to go next, you moron," Lovina sighed. "Pack your bags, amici – you two are taking a wander through a graveyard."

_**Notes:**_

**I'm thinking it's becoming habit for me to apologise for the absence at the beginning of these stories… but really it's for those who read one but not another – you lovies who read everything I write are well aware of my existential crisis by now xD**

**As promised – to a friend – here's the next chapter! Tomorrow should hopefully be the second part of If Eyes Could Speak, but I'm getting really up in the air with what order shit happens… **

**Which reminds me!**

**Those of you looking out for the Supernatural themed story (Unsterblich's sequel), the wait shouldn't be too much longer! Thanks to a lovely Anon on Tumblr I've been handed a hint on what to do and should be working on it as soon as Rotters is complete. It may happen after If Eye Could Speak is over with too cos that's only a 3 part thing but still! SOON GUYS! **


	8. Chapter 7

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Seven**

I closed my eyes for a moment and let out an exasperated sigh. Of course we would be heading into a freaking graveyard – where else would we be going? The land of happy candy people? I didn't think so… As far as I was aware that kind of world didn't exist. I glanced over at Arthur, watching his expression change from one of confusion straight to anxiety. I couldn't blame him really – it was only his 3rd day on the island and already he had fought with AIs, Ivan and now had to go traversing through a cyber-graveyard that was most likely holding the corpses of the many people that Ivan had murdered over the past year.

Needless to say I wasn't very excited about going there myself.

"You know, if I could code some things and make a way for you to get out of there then I really would," Lovina said. There was a rustle and a clink of glasses behind her – Alfred must have just come back in with their iced tea. "You know that I'll do everything that I can from this end to make sure that nothing majorly bad happens to you both…"

"We know, Lovina," Arthur said, running a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and looked around us, probably trying to take in enough sun as possible before we headed out into that area. I had been near it before during my earlier days on the island but I had never dared go through the gates – I was guessing at that point in time that it probably wouldn't even let me inside until I was the correct level. It was as though the weather around that place just seemed to be a whole system of its own – you know in those old cartoons how when a character was in a bad mood they would get a rain cloud over their heads and the rain would just pour on them alone, that was how that graveyard was like.

I peeked out from our shelter and looked around to make sure the coast was clear before glancing back at Arthur. He didn't seem like he was ready to leave at all and in all honesty, neither was I but we had to move before we were found by Ivan again.

"Come on, Indie," I said, trying to lighten the mood. "You and I have some grave robbing to do!"

He chuckled and shook his head, following me out of the shelter. "You have a very warped way of putting these missions. You don't even know if we even have to rob a grave."

"Well, I can imagine can't I?"

"Why would you even want to imagine robbing a grave?" Arthur asked. "You're not secretly related to Burke or Hare are you?"

"Like I'm going to tell you that," I laughed. "Like you said, it's a secret. But seriously, this is the part of the video game that has a plot where the main characters need to make some serious plotline progress and so far we haven't really done that. We're kinda like those shitty multiplayer things that just go on repeat and take away from the plot of the story."

"Says the girl who spent a whole year trying to avoid becoming a part of the storyline to save her own skin," Arthur retorted, jogging to keep up with me as I started a quick-paced walk in the direction of the graveyard. "And pray tell me how you know where we're going if you'd spent all that time wandering around caves."

"I did go to other parts of the island to find food and water sources," I replied. "You find taking things from the very same places a) starts to become more obvious that there is someone living nearby and b) makes the resources of the area start to deplete very quickly. I made a rota of places to get food so that I knew where the best crops and stuff would be and the best times so that I could avoid the AIs."

"I think you may have grown to be a part of this island more than you realised," Arthur said. I looked at him confused. "Not in the coding sense… I mean, you've grown on this island. From what your family told me when I first took on your case, you seemed to be a very shut off individual. They described you as someone that liked to keep to herself, anti-social in a way and very dependent on the indoors. But here… You really don't seem like the same girl I had been looking for for a year. Don't get me wrong, they weren't insulting about you… but the way you are now seems to be a whole lot better than back then."

"I'm a year older and I've been alone for that whole time," I said, trying to ignore the little flutter of annoyance I felt at how he talked about the way they described me. Not his tone or anything like that, just what they said about me. "It's adapt or be killed and as much as I felt as though I was waste of space in the real world, in the lives of my family, I didn't want to die. Even if I got out of this place and ended up by myself out there, at least I would be alive."

Arthur nodded and went quiet again. I shook my head a little and continued to lead him through the forest. It was peculiar how much of the island I could remember from just one or two journeys – maybe what he had said about me being a part of the island more than I realised really was true. I looked at my feet for a moment, watching the laces on my boots bounce as I took every step. Talking about getting out into the real world was starting to make realise the true severity of the situation I was in – what if we really did make it out into the real world again? What would I do? How would I cope?

I had been stuck in what felt like a different planet for an entire year – I had missed out on the chances to meet new people, the news that had happened, events that had been going on around the world, job opportunities that would have been better than working for an evil scientist, seeing my family even if it was awkward. What would there be for me to talk about? I was certain that the first thing that I would get asked about would be where I had been for the past year – and what would I tell them? That mad Japanese man that I worked for actually created a video game and computer that sucked the user inside and made them battle out on a cyber-island until only one person survived? I would be seen as mad even if I had Arthur there to back up my statement. Where would I even go? What opportunities would there really be for a person like me who had been missing for so very long? They had all probably feared me dead at least 3 times in that whole time – I know that Alfred seemed to have never given up faith in finding me, but there must have been times where he felt like giving up and declaring me dead. Then there was the fact that my disappearance had made my mother ill with worry – what would I say to her when I got back? 'Hi, Mom… Sorry I was gone for so long… My boss was a psychotic asshole…'

I had become so accustomed to my routine on the island that I had totally forgotten that world outside was still moving on. There was probably more government problems, fighting and killing, that war in Iraq was still going on when I had been sucked in so was that still going? Had anything or anyone been attacked? Were the royals still hot topics of conversation? What had the world turned into whilst I was gone?

"Amie, is that where we're meant to be heading?"

I looked up from my shoes as Arthur's voice drew me out of my thoughts, glancing at him before following his line of sight to find where he was looking. Sure enough, just in the distance, was the peculiar graveyard. I nodded and continued to walk in that direction without another word. I knew that Arthur was probably hoping for more than just a nod, but I really couldn't give him anything else at that moment – my head was so full of thoughts that I was finding it more than difficult just keeping track of one thing let alone an entire plotline.

"How come it's so dark in there and it's still pretty light out here?" asked Arthur.  
"I don't know, Arthur," I replied, walking over to the rusty old gate and putting my hands on the metal. "I really don't… So can we please just get this over and done with…?"

"What's the matter?" he asked, walking up beside me and looking down at me in concern. I shook my head and went to open the gate only to be pulled back and forced to look up at him properly. "Amelia, talk to me. You seem way to distant to be going into a situation like this."

"I…" I stuttered. "I… I don't know… I'm just… I just really freaking out inside…"

"What do you mean?"

"We're getting so close to getting out of here, but what am I going to be going back to?" I muttered. "The world that I left is gone… I have missed out an entire years' worth of my life out there… Things have surely happened and I don't know what I'll be going back to… I'll be as much of a stranger to that world as I was to this one when I first entered it…"

"And like this one you'll learn to adapt and survive," Arthur replied, smiling at me kindly. "In that world you have a family that is going to support you, friends – the only point of survival would be finding a job to earn money to get you by. If you can spend a year in a cyber-jungle being hunted then I think you are more than strong enough to cope in that world again."

"You really think so?"

"I know so."

I smiled a little and nodded. "Okay," I said. "Let's get going then."

Moving out of my way, Arthur stayed behind me as I opened the gate – we both winced at the sound of the horribly high-pitched squeak of the hinges as it opened, but moved on inside and shut it behind us again. I looked around as we started to make our way through – the weather really was different on the inside. It was a hell of a lot colder on the inside than it had been out on the other parts of the island – it was peculiar how Kiku had managed to create a place like this, but then again was I really surprised after being in that stupid Grudge house?

It was more than a little eerie looking at all those graves that had been created around us – I couldn't really tell just how many there were, but there were far too many for my liking. I knew that some of them were just simple prop graves, the kind you make for a video game or film to make up the space and bulk it out a little, but I knew that the majority were the graves of the people that Ivan had killed. I could tell because those people didn't have a birth date – just the date they had died.

Arthur crouched down close to one of the graves and read the text that had been put on it, calling over to me to come over and check it out myself. I went over begrudgingly and stood behind him, looking at the name of the poor soul who had been trapped there forever. "Why does it only have a death date?"

"Because they died in this game and there is no telling, from Kiku's perspective, what their date of birth was," I replied honestly. I sighed softly when Arthur gave me a genuinely surprised look. "Very few of these graves are AIs… Most of them are the people that have come into this game in the last year and not got out again. This is one of the reasons why I don't want to die in here – I don't want to be stuck in this area for the rest of time…"

"So he just… buries them here?"

"Pretty much," I said. "Let's face it, this island has to have some beauty appeal – having a bunch of corpses littering the grounds wouldn't be all that good for that… Besides, I don't think us turning into cannibals would be very entertaining to him. Killing each other is one thing but eating each other is a completely different kettle of fish – and I personally don't find seeing one person eat another very entertaining…"

"There doesn't seem to be anything for us to do here though," Arthur said. "It'll take forever to look at every single grave but I don't know what else to do… There has to be something for us to get on with in here or how else are we going to progress?"

"Well, you could start by stepping off of my grave…"

We jumped and looked around to see a translucent boy no older than myself floating towards us – his feet were on the ground but how he was moving made him seem as though he was gliding. He had glasses, blond shoulder length hair and dark purple eyes. A little curl stuck out at the front of his hair line and he wore an annoyed expression.

"Your…"

"My grave, yeah," he said. "It's got my name it. Matthew Williams. Though I'm surprised really, everyone always forgets." I glanced at Arthur, speechless. "I'm gonna assume that you're that Amie girl that fucking psychotic Russian guy was yabbering about when he found me."

"Uh, yeah… I'm Amelia Jones…"

"Great, well, at least I can try and do one good thing," Matthew said.

"What's that?"

"Get you two on to the next level."

_**Notes:**_

**OH CANADA~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**I had to find a way to get him in there somehow and well, I had a graveyard and I was looking through Cry's videos again and found that game **_**Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon**_** and remembered the ghost guide in that and well…**

**Yep. Sorry for the delays on updates, if you've read in my other stories you'll already know but those of you who don't – life happened. **

**Anyways, I hope you stick around for more and for the Canadian's out there:**

**Happy Canada Day :D**

**Laters!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Eight**

"You are really willing to help us get to the next level?" I asked. Matthew simply nodded, his arms folded as he floated and gave me an impatient look. It kind of irritated me a little that he was acting the way he was after just dropping such a bombshell on us – I mean, come on! Give us some freaking time to discuss this and get used to the idea! Or even just think about how it could all go wrong and try to plan ways to keep those ideas from happening…

I glanced at Arthur as he rubbed his arms a little – the chill of the graveyard was starting to affect both of us and with the thought that we could get this over and done with much sooner than we had been expecting…

"Fine, what do we have to do?" I said, looking up at the strange ghost boy. Matthew raised his eyebrows at my tone, tiling his head a little as his expression turned from impatient to exasperated.

"Firstly, you can drop the attitude with me," he said. "I don't have to do this, ya know. I could just float around here and watch you have to deal with it all yourself so the least you could do is be polite."

"Sorry," I replied. "I'm just anxious…"

"I get it," Matthew said, shrugging his shoulders. "You've been here for just over a year whereas I have been here… 3 months; 2 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days as a ghost though."

"Wow…" Arthur said quietly. "So, he just found you and…"

"You and I look alike, I've noticed, Amelia," Matthew said, looking between Arthur and I. "When he was shouting about Amelia, no doubt he thought maybe for a split second that I was you. Then he just set about killing me anyway."

"I'm sorry…"

"Stop saying sorry for something that isn't your fault," Matthew said, rolling his eyes. "You never told him where I was… Hell, I doubt you even knew that I was even on the island… I doubt anyone has been looking for me…"

"Actually, your family's not stopped looking for you," Arthur said, stepping forwards and looking him dead in the eyes. "I've been a detective on these missing person cases since Amelia's disappearance, and I can tell you no one as stopped looking for you. All of you."

"You're a detective…" Matthew blinked. "Well, at least helping you can help me… You can tell my family what happened to me… Give them some closure…"

"Of course," Arthur said. "As soon as we're out of here and Kiku has been stopped then we can give everyone's family closure… It's the least we can do. But first, we need to get past this level."

"Well, as far as I've seen from people who actually have gotten past this level before, level 3 literally is only in this graveyard," Matthew said. "It's more of a puzzle than anything… You see there are five crypts… mausoleums… Four of them are the first part of the puzzle… You need to get into them, follow through their mazes to get the pieces to open the final crypt. Once that's open, you get the XP to get through to get to Level 4."

"I thought we were Level 2?" Arthur asked.

I shrugged. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," I said. "There are like 5 levels in this game so the closer we are to level 5 the better."

"True…" muttered Arthur. For a moment a thought that he was done, but it seemed like he still had more questions for Matthew. "What will be inside the crypts? I mean, will they be mazes or will there be monsters or what?"

"I really don't know," Matthew said, giving us a genuinely sorry look. "I wish I could be more help to you… I know that I can go in and help when needed, but the other guy that came in here to do the level never even saw me… He came out of Crypt One looking as though he had been through a war, then took in the nearest weapon he could find for the next one… So I would assume it'll be pretty bad…"

"Great…" I groaned, running a hand through my hair. "Just fucking great…"

Matthew frowned as he looked at me again; I couldn't really blame him, I knew that the past year had turned me into someone that even I didn't know sometimes. I knew that I was colder, more isolated… I was just getting more and more frustrated with everything that was happening. Matthew could judge me all he wanted, but what I had gone through wasn't going to be ignore just because his experience had ended with death.

As selfish as it sounded, being made to feel bad for my feelings wasn't going to stop me. Yeah, he died, but I was there trying to survive 9 months before he even got into this cyber hell… I felt sorry him, yeah, but his suffering was shorter and this ghost-like state would soon be over too…

"Where are these crypts then?" I asked, putting on my usual mask. "The sooner we get in and out again, the sooner we can get our freedom and stop this from happening ever again!"

"This way…" said Matthew, floating away from us. Glancing at Arthur, I started to follow the ghost through the graveyard. It was a truly spooky sight to behold: a soft grey mist had started to seep across the grounds, our feet pretty much hidden as it reached up to our ankles. I could literally feel the tension around us as we walked, unable to stop myself from glancing at Arthur through the corner of my eyes.

He was stoic, his expression void of any emotion as he stared straight ahead of us. It must have just been hitting home to him just how many people had also gone missing in the time that he had been searching for me. There was no telling how many people had died in this godforsaken world since its creation. But the thought that was starting to scare me was what if Ivan and I weren't the first…? I had always assumed that we had been the very first to go to the island, but what if we weren't? What if there had been others before us but they had failed? Hell, what if they were still here – a part of the game so perfectly evolved that they had lost themselves as they tried to escape…

And that thought led me to one that little bit worse… What if the pattern was just repeating with Arthur and I? What if by playing into Kiku's games we were just leading ourselves along the same path to a fate worse than death? If there was no way out what was the point in continuing with a fight that was only going to kill us? My year of survival could have all been for nothing and I could simply have been the biggest source of entertainment Kiku had had for a whole year…

"Amie, do you want to stop daydreaming now?" said Arthur, drawing me out of my spiralling, self-destructive thoughts. "We're here…"

Blinking a little, I looked at the sight before us silently and apprehensively. Matthew had been telling the truth about the crypts. They were arranged in a semi-circle shape, the largest and final one we would have to enter in the dead centre. They all looked like traditional mausoleums except for the door in the middle one. The door was large, wooden and arched, in two halves like that of an old fashioned castle door complete with the old bolts and metal bars. Except the lock for it was in the centre, and it was far from an ordinary. It was circular, set with a pentagon in the centre but at each point of the star was a small circle that looked as though they could hold at least an object the size of a tennis ball.

I couldn't help but grin a little as I realised just what it was we may have to do, looking at Arthur and watching the imaginary light bulb flash above his head too. He glanced down at his clothes then across at mine, grimacing slightly as he seemed to catch up with what I was thinking.

"Miss Croft, I think we have a challenge ahead of us," said Arthur, turning his attention back to the crypts in front of us.

"Dr Jones, I couldn't agree with you more," I replied.

"Has anyone ever told you that you are perfect together?" asked Matthew suddenly – I jumped slightly as I remembered that he was there, as did Arthur…

"Yes," came Lovina's reply through the Talkie. I rolled my eyes, hoping that Alfred hadn't heard any of that – something told me that he wouldn't find it very appropriate for me to be with the detective hired to fine me. "I can't find out any data for these places except that they have a huge individual mapping scheme."

"What the hell does that mean?" asked Arthur, taking the device from my belt and holding it up. "Lovina, please just speaking bloody English for those of us who aren't technically literate. Please."

"Jesus, you are tense," Lovina said. "And careful, that coding can't take your attitude."

"Lovina."

"Yeah yeah…" she replied. "Basically it means that each crypt is just the gateway to another map. Think of the island as one map, separate to everything else… Actually… Think of it like… uh… the UK! You have the different counties and cities, right. Well, say the island is… Cornwall. The island is Cornwall and the crypts are train stations to other parts of the UK like Hampshire, Devon and so on. These crypts are their own counties."

"Oh," Arthur said, nodding his head. "That makes sense."

"I prefer the technical version…" I muttered, holding my hands up in defence as Arthur shot me a look. I turned around and looked up at Matthew, smiling a little. "So, you taking the drop with us or do you want to stay here?"

"I can go in when I need to," Matthew said, thinking for a moment. "Your friend in the talkie seems to know her way around a computer, so if she's keeping watch over you she can send a message out to me if you need any help."

"Tell me one thing," I said.

"What's that?"

"You're not just a coded trick are you?" I asked. "You are real…"

"I'm real," Matthew said, looking at me earnestly. "I am 100% real."

"I just wanted to check…" I said quietly. "I mean, I know Arthur said about your family but still… You never know in this world… I've been here long enough…"

"And soon you'll be out of here," Arthur said, hooking the talkie back to my belt and putting his arm around me. I looked up at him and smiled a little.

"Dude, arm off my little sister."

"Fuck off, Alfred," I sighed, smiling a little. "Well, which one first?"

"May as well go for the first one," Arthur said, letting me go and walking over to the crypt. "I feel like I'm about to defile some poor person's grave…"

"But you're not," I said, walking over with him and taking hold of one half of the door. Arthur held onto the other and nodded, pulling with me to open up the crypt. It opened with a lot of force, the low moaning sounding as we got it open all the way but all that we could see inside was a whole load of darkness. I balled my hands into fists and closed my eyes for a moment, relaxing slightly as Arthur held my hand. Opening my eyes again, I looked up at him and smiled a bit before stepping inside with him.

The door slammed shut violently behind us and the sound echoed through me for a few seconds even after it had gone – but still all around us was darkness until a circle formed around our feet and lights shone up around us in a dramatic display of blues, greens and yellows. It was like a group of multi-coloured fireflies had started a formation and were floating around the circle as a pentagon was drawn by no one beneath our feet.

"What the blood and stomach pills is going on?" Arthur said, blinking as his voice had a slight ring to it.

"This would be a loading screen," I replied, the same ringing in my voice.

"So it's just you, me and the loading screen at the moment?" Arthur chuckled, looking around us. "It seems far too pretty for the kind of situation we're about to go into. Though the crypts could be misleading… we could be going to some city or anything if it's a totally new map."

"I don't know," I replied.

The lights started to grow brighter around us right to the point where it was almost blindingly bright. I closed my eyes but still it didn't work so I covered them as Arthur did the same and gripped hold of his hand so we didn't get separated.

But then we both fell to the ground with a harsh crash. I groaned and rubbed my head, opening my eyes and looking around the dimly lit room we seemed to have been placed in. It seemed to be Egyptian in style, hieroglyphics across every part of each wall. There was what seemed to be a recently used camp in the corner of the room, the source of the light being some simply set up lighting and a bonfire.

As Arthur started to look at all the hieroglyphics on one wall, I wandered over to the camp and found a piece of paper left on one of the chairs. Picking it up, I read aloud:

"_Benny, I know you told me to stay here and man the exit and shit, but there are some fucking creepy noises. Eddie went off just now to carry on exploring the tombs himself but he's not been back for a while… That stupid bastard is gonna get himself killed all for the sake of some mythological treasure… I think I heard a shout just now and that place is a fucking labyrinth. I won't be too long but if you need to find us there's a few torches and batteries in the basket under my seat. Your buddy, Mitch_."

Arthur looked around at me as I read, walking over and looking through the basket and finding the items as stated. "Please tell me we're not about to do what I think we are…"

"Well, if you're thinking we're about to take those torches and batteries and go down into a labyrinth," I said. "Then I'm sorry… but I think we are going to have to do so…"

_**Notes:**_

**Woo, long time no update! God it's been too long my buds. I'm so sorry.**

**Anyways, there are a few hinters in this chapter to other games (indie and mainstream, I guess) plus one line should be recognisable to some fans of someone else xD Props to anyone who can tell me the line and the person who originally said it :3**

**But yeah, thanks for sticking by me and everything and I hope you continue to enjoy the story :D**


	10. Chapter 9

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Nine**

The look on Arthur's face equalled the emotion that I was feeling at that moment – fear. But I couldn't show him that I was scared of what we were about to do, one of us had to keep calm and collected so that we could carry on and get this over and done with. With slightly shaking hands I put some batteries into the torches and handed one of them to Arthur, making sure that the rest of the batteries were safely tucked away in my backpack for when we needed them.

I dreaded to think what we were about to come across in a place like this. It all seemed like we really had entered a tomb like Indiana Jones – I wasn't sure just how we were going to get out again as the door behind us seemed to be pretty well sealed behind us, but I kind of figured that that would be answered as soon as we found what we would need to put into the holders outside.

That was another thing that was bugging me about that – what exactly were we looking for? It was definitely something the size of a tennis ball but the only thing in videos games like this that I could think of that could be that size other than the balls themselves were jewels… It kind of made sense that we had been put into a world like this if that really was what we were looking for. But that couldn't be the case for the other worlds could it? Those other crypts couldn't hold worlds like this could they? Surely that would be far too repetive for Kiku… With him things were different yet they made sense… A door could open and have something on the inside that was bigger than what you were expecting and it still made sense…

But I couldn't afford to lose focus in the world I was in at that moment – I could worry about the other worlds when I actually got to them, this one was the one I had to keep in mind for the moment… I turned on the torch in my hand and shone it down in the direction that we had to go down, nodding to Arthur as he did the same and we started to make our way down the steep stone steps. Our footsteps echoed around us with every step, our breathing audible also as we got to the bottom and looked around us.

We were presented with a horrible sight – we really were in a labyrinth, one that now showed us three possible paths: left, right and forward. We had no map and no telling how far away the thing we were looking for was going to be – to matters worse we didn't have any clue just what else would be wandering around the corridors of this place and what threat they could pose to us.

"Which way should we go?" asked Arthur. "And… uh, how are we going to remember which ways we've gone?"

"Uh… Shit…" I muttered, trying to think of a plan. "Wait a minute… Do you remember ever being told the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur?"

"I vaguely recall being told that story in a history class at school years ago," Arthur replied. "That was set in a labyrinth too, wasn't it?"

I nodded. "It was… He was sent to the island with other Athenian children to face the Minotaur but with the help of a princess named Ariadne who told him to tie some string to the beginning of the maze to find his way back out again he was able to destroy the Minotaur and free the Athenian children from the curse they had to endure…"

"We're not in a Greek story are we though? This is Egyptian writing… So is he trying to mess with us or what?" Arthur said, looking around. "This seems to be some crossover of Egyptian and Greek mythology… And anyway, we don't happen to have any string to tie to the entrance do we?"

"I have a marker though," I said, rummaging through my backpack. Arthur raised his eyebrows at me. "It was something that was put into the box a year ago where I got all my gear. It's what I was using to mark of the days I've been in here from daybreak to nightfall for the entire year… One mark a day, so it should be still pretty full on ink."

"We mark the entrance so we know then mark every turn we take with an 'x' so we can find our way through and hopefully not get too lost…" Arthur said, catching up with my plan. "That's a pretty good idea!"

I chuckled and pulled the pen out from my backpack, hitching it back up onto my back and putting a mark on the way beside the entrance. Pointing my torch around, I took a deep breath and tried to think of which way we should go first. Straight ahead would be far too obvious – everyone goes straight ahead when they play video games, that's just the natural reaction…

"Let's head left," I said, turning around again and heading down the left path before Arthur could protest. He jogged to keep up with me, slowing down once he had caught up with me. The corridors were long and dark and I could feel my heartbeat increasing as my breathing became almost none existent. I was too scared to make a sound, hoping that my silence wouldn't draw in any of the creatures or people that could be in there with us yet at the same time give me the opportunity to be able to listen out just in case any of them did try to charge us.

"There's a tunnel there," Arthur said, stopping and pointing his torch down at the aforementioned hole. I blinked and crouched down to look inside, holding onto the torch carefully as I crawled inside and along the dusty trail in front of me. Arthur was right behind me as we got right inside and found a circular area with a low ceiling that had two other tails leading off in different directions. However, on the wall there was a ragged note which I was quick to go over to and pick up.

"_Mitch_," I read aloud but quietly. "_Benny… I hope you guys are finding these notes… I'm so fucking sorry if you are though… We were so wrong about this place, guys… Shit… I hope you can get out again… I managed to hide in here cos that monster is too big to get into the tunnels… but it's out there… It knows where I am and it's gonna get me… The tunnels are key…_"

"Well, that's foreboding isn't it…?" Arthur muttered, looking around. "So we aren't alone in here then."

"I'm not particularly keen on bumping into this monster then if it's too big to be able to get into these places," I sighed, stuffing the note into my pocket for the time being. "But… let's keep moving."

After marking the tunnel correctly we chose to go to the left again, crawling through quietly whilst listening out for any tell-tale signs of our mystery monster. I got to the exit of the new tunnel first, so peaked outside to make sure the coast was clear before crawling out and pointing my torch around to judge our new path after marking the wall above the tunnel. Arthur stood up beside me and looked round, walking ahead of me slightly. I followed him through the corridor, heading right from where we had left the tunnel – I was secretly hoping that we would come across more of those notes to tell us a bit more information about what was going on in this place. The tunnels seemed like our best bet at that moment, especially as we had had no clue what this monster was but that it's only weakness was not being able to get through a small hole.

Arthur stopped at the next corner and peaked around it, pressing himself flat against the wall quickly and holding me back as I went to walk on. I looked up at him curiously and he shook his head.

"What?" I whispered.

"Big… Big bull… Man… Thing…" he choked back. I blinked, deciding to peak around the corner myself. I wished I hadn't and also that Arthur had been quicker to stop me. The monster was huge, with large sharply pointed horns on its head. It was extremely muscular – the skin an odd colour but the body somewhat human. The head as definitely a bull though, and its glowing red eyes stared down the corridor and locked with mine.

Suddenly, a terrible roar echoed through the corridors and the sound of charging reached our ears. I gasped as Arthur grabbed my hand and dragged me forwards, both of starting to sprint down the corridor ahead of us and hopefully away from the Minotaur. I could still hear it behind us, breathing hard as I tried to keep up with Arthur as he continued to pull me away. Another roar happened behind us, and I could almost feel its breath on the back of my neck as we turned into another corridor.

"There!" I gasped, pointing ahead of us to another tunnel. Arthur looked and spotted it, stopping at the edge and forcing me to get inside first. I started to crawl through the tunnel, glancing behind me to make sure Arthur was still there. He was but I could see the Minotaur coming up fast. Its fists slammed into the wall, roaring and fighting to get through to us as we got into another central area. I flopped back against a wall and panted, pointing my torch around the area to see if there were any new notes for us to find.

There was.

I crawled over and grabbed it as Arthur settled down, using the light of my torch to make the hastily scribbled scrawl more easier to read. "_This is definitely a new area… I've definitely found something new… That monster's still out there somewhere but… Mitch, Benny… Be wary of the skeletons…_"

"Fucking skeletons now?" Arthur griped, rubbing his face. "Fucking fantastic…"

"They're just bones," I said, looking over my shoulder at him. "We just have to make their structures collapse and we're fine. It's still that freaking Minotaur we have to worry about."

He nodded. "But we don't know where we're going," he said. "Sure, by sheer luck, we've found a new area… But still… There could be a whole load more…"

"They're aren't!" came Alfred's voice through the talkie. I cursed under my breath and turned the volume down as the Minotaur roared again and continued to try and smash at the wall. "Sorry…"

"Tell us what you mean," I demanded.

"You have one area left and a puzzle door," Alfred explained. "The dark and monsters are meant to freak you out, hunt you… kill you… That's the pressure. You have to get through that door without getting hurt. You can do that by taking the right exit of the tunnel you're in now, going straight ahead, the second left and then the tunnel you reach at that point. Skeletons can't follow you either – they collapse when they get into a crouch position so just crawl into tunnels to get away from them."

"How did you know this and why didn't you tell us earlier?" Arthur snapped.

"Lovina's only just got the map patched," Alfred continued. "We have multiple views on this thing cos Lovina managed to hack into see the codes. She can't edit them or delete them unfortunately but still… We have a lock on the Minotaur on one screen, you're on another and we have a map on another. The other screens have the island still cos it can't help to keep a check on other things… Including that ghost guy… But yeah. At first the map just followed you – like it was blank minus the small radius of corridors around you, but as you moved the corridors faded to wipe where you've been and keep the radius around you simple. But it was an unprotected code which Lovina was able to patch so we now have the entire map of the labyrinth in front of us! She's only just got it working though so we couldn't help you before… Besides, me shouting through the talkie pissed off that thing outside the tunnel… it would have been worse if we'd talked while you were out in the corridor."

"Fair enough," I said, nodding my head. "So… can you guys tell what puzzle it is we have to solve to get through the door?"

"No not yet…" Lovina said. "But hurry, the quicker you get this done the quicker you can get out of there."

"Okay…" Arthur breathed. "So that's right, forwards, second left, tunnel… Where from then…?"

"We'll tell you once you're safe in that tunnel," Alfred replied. "We've given you a lot of information as it is, no need to overwhelm you more…"

"Thanks, bro," I smiled, hooking the talkie to my belt again. I looked around at Arthur and nodded, making sure the Minotaur was still at the entrance behind us before crawling along the right tunnel and heading out into the corridor. We walked on forwards quietly, keeping to the centre of the path until I made Arthur stop.

"What?" he asked.

Pointing to the floor, I made him look at the how the tile in the centre had a slightly different design to the others. "Pretty suspicious, no?"

"Indeed…" Arthur replied. We took to opposite walls and side-stepped around the centre tile, not wanting to set off any booby-traps before continuing on our path. Every so often we came across a skeleton hung on a wall so kept to the opposite side so as not to disturb them or wake them or anything else that would put us in danger. Following my brother's instructions, we took the second left as we got to it and wandered down the corridor with the same edginess.

"There's the tunnel!" I whispered, pointing my torch in that direction. Arthur grinned, walking with me a little quicker to reach the tunnel before anything bad happened again. We got to it and started to crawl inside, Arthur making me go first again in his suicidal gentlemanly manner.

I started to crawl through and I could hear him behind me, but then I heard him yell. Turning quickly and bumping my head in the process, I saw him getting dragged back out of the tunnel.

"NO!" I shouted, leaning forwards and grabbing his hands. He gripped mine tightly as I tried to pull him back, his free leg kicking at the clawed hands around his left ankle. I changed position slightly to brace my legs on the walls to keep myself from getting pulled out too. Finally getting in a good kick, the creature screeched and let him go, the momentum sending him flying on top of me. I yelped as I fell backwards, the position we were in far too awkward for words – he was lying between my legs on top of me, his face against my neck as his chin hit my right shoulder... Basically, take away our clothes and… Well, I was blushing hard and had to push him off of me quickly to continue crawling to the centre of the tunnel. Arthur followed me and sat aside to catch his breath, watching me as I found the final note we'd need.

"_I hope you find your way boys, cos I'm almost out_," I read. "_The door to the treasure room is nearby! I just know it! Just need to get to it and I'll have found the greatest discovery since King Tut!_"

"That's optimistic, isn't it?" Alfred chuckled, making us both jump.

"Where do we go know?" I asked, hoping to any deity that he hadn't been looking at the screen with us on when… Shit…

"Uh…" Alfred said, clearly studying the map again. "Left tunnel exit, right turn, straight on… then second right and it'll be at the end of the corridor."

"Brilliant," Arthur said, crawling towards the left tunnel.

"Be careful though…" Alfred said. "That was the Minotaur that grabbed you just now… and he's still close…"

"Thanks…" I replied, crawling out after Arthur. He made sure the coast was clear before letting me out into the corridor, keeping in front of me slightly as we followed my brother's instructions again whilst following our own tentative pattern. I couldn't hear the Minotaur anywhere, but that didn't mean much from how suddenly he had attacked us just now. I noticed that Arthur had a slight limp in his walk, but it was nothing serious by the looks of it – I made a mental note to question him on it when we were out of there.

Finally we got to the door and it was… I couldn't help but stare as we got to it – some serious thought needed to be put into the puzzle before us. It was a movement puzzle – one where you had to move the pieces around to get the two coloured blocks into the right slots. I blinked as Arthur stepped forwards and started to work his way through the puzzle like it was no big deal, grinning as he managed to get the two pieces into the right slots with the sounds of the lock clicking in the background.

"How did you do that so fast?" I asked.

"I may not be the best gamer but I'm an ace at puzzles," Arthur grinned. "Professor Layton was almost a stroll in the park."

I chuckled, pausing as I heard a roar at the end of the corridor. Looking round, I shouted as I saw the Minotaur charging towards us. Arthur shouted too, pulling at the door with me and slamming it shut before the Minotaur got to us. It started hammering at the door, tugging on the handles to try and get inside. Arthur kept a tight hold of the door, grunting as he used all his effort to keep it closed.

"GO!" he shouted. "FIND THAT ITEM!"

I hesitated for a split second but nodded, turning around and looking at the room we had entered in awe. It was filled with mountains of gold, jewels and trinkets… And sat upon a throne at the top of the centre pile was a pharaoh-like skeleton. In his hand he held a sceptre upon which sat a bright glowing pale blue sapphire…

I ran over to the gold and began to hastily climb towards the skeleton – it looked as though the jewel in his sceptre would be just what we needed, the other jewels being placed around as distractions… I wasn't going to be tempted though, this was the one we needed… Finally I got to the top and carefully pulled the sceptre from the skeletons hands… I turned it over in my hand and examined the sapphire… Yeah, that would work.

Behind me though I could hear Arthur shout as the slamming of doors happened, but before I could turn to see what was going on the skeleton sprung alive violently, swooping its arm at me and screeching.

Its strike sent me flying, the sceptre still gripped tightly in my hand as I fell backwards, screaming until everything turned black.

_**Notes:**_

**I'm fucking evil with cliffhangers, aren't I? **

**Mwuhahahaa!**

**I have some ideas for this thing that I hope you are going to enjoy! Don't worry, I'll try to explain to games and things I reference if you guys are confused.**

**So, firstly, last chapter! The phrase that I said was: **'_"So it's just you, me and the loading screen at the moment?" Arthur chuckled, looking around us._' **I couldn't help but throw in a phrase used by PewDiePie to his audience during the loading screens of Amnesia. And then other things.**

**And as for this chapter: the two games I based this game on are **_Curse of the Aztecs_** and **_Labyrinth_**. Both are awesome and scary and I recommend checking them out! Oh, and I listened to a lot of the playlist from the Tasty Network on YouTube to get musical inspiration for this chapter. I recommend that too!**

**Anyways, until next time mi amigos!**


	11. Chapter 10

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Ten**

"Amelia…"

"Amelia?"

"AMIE?!

"AMIE!"

I groaned as my eyes opened suddenly, the chill of the air around me hitting me harshly as though I had just been dosed in cold water. It was a truly disorientating moment in which I literally had no idea where I was, what position I was in or who was around me. Finally my senses came back to me and I could feel something large and hard behind my head. I grunted slightly and tried to sit up, to get away from the pain that it was starting to cause the back of my head, but I was forced to keep lying down. Not by hands, just by a sheer weight coursing through my own body.

I blinked as I focused, looking up to see Arthur and Matthew looking down at me worriedly. For a split second I didn't understand why they were looking so very worried – but then the darkness caught up to me, the terror that we had just endured and I sat bolt upright as the shock coursed through my body. I remember the Minotaur, I remembered the dark and the feeling as though we were never going to make it to the end, I remember the fear and the puzzles… I remember the skeleton that came alive and shoved me as I stole its sceptre… I remember falling… and falling and falling until I hit the ground and the world grew black around me.

Arthur's hands were on my shoulders, holding me in place so that the shock didn't make me do anything to hurt myself or him. I couldn't blame him, that was a pretty scary moment… but then as I looked around us I realised that we were back in the graveyard, back outside those horrible tombs. I glanced down at my hand as I felt something cutting into my palm only to see the bright blue gem from the skeleton's sceptre tightly in my grip.

"Are you alright?" asked Arthur, tilting my head up so that he could look in my eyes. I knew this was some medical thing that he seemed capable of doing, but it was really off putting in that situation to have to stare into his eyes… "You don't seem to have a concussion… What the hell happened back there?"

"You tell me…" I said. "I have a vague idea… just fill in the pieces for me so I can confirm it…"

"Okay…" Arthur muttered confusedly. "Well, I was holding the door shut as the Minotaur was trying to get inside the room. You'd gone off to find the thing that we needed… But I couldn't hold it anymore and that beast broke into the room. It was about to swipe at me when I heard you scream and then the world just seemed to melt away… I was stood in darkness until the floor beneath me started to light up in that peculiar emblem again… I turned around and saw you lying on the floor so I ran over to you, but you just wouldn't wake… No matter what I did your eyes wouldn't open… The a bright light shone behind me and I could see the doors of the tomb opening so I dragged you out… We've been trying to wake you for 20 minutes…"

Nodding slowly, I lifted my hand and showed him the gem. "I got it," I said, smiling a little. "It was the gem in the pharaoh's sceptre, but the damned skeleton came to life and shoved me… I fell from the very top of that pile to the ground so that'll be why I was out cold."

"You got it…" Arthur said, staring at the gem with a stunned expression. He was quiet before a moment before he laughed. It made me jump but smile at the same time. "You got it… You bloody got it! Jesus fucking Christ! So that's one down!"

"Four to go," I replied. "Which is confusing me. There are five tombs, one of which as the lock on it. There are also five points on its star. So where is the fifth place?"

"Unless it's here," Arthur said. "I think we should just wait and see. Get the other 3 items we need and then figure out how the fifth point works. Overloading ourselves with thoughts at this point would only do us more harm than good."

"I'd help with that point if I could but even I don't understand it," Matthew said.

In agreement, we stood and I put the gem we had already collected into my backpack for safe keeping. I didn't trust that area and would hate for someone else to come in and steal all our hard work and leave us with nothing to show for it except the chance to go through that nightmare again. Arthur and I wandered over to the second tomb and looked up at it – it was slightly different from the other, it seemed older and dirtier. I wondered if that was a sign of how things would look in this new world we were about to enter. Bracing ourselves, we pulled on the door and managed to get it open using all the strength we could muster – glancing back at Matthew before walking into the darkness once more and hearing the doors slam shut behind us.

I gripped Arthur's hand again and looked around as we continued to walk forwards, shielding my eyes once more as the bright lights of the loading screen started to shine and float around us like fairies once more. I didn't quite understand the symbolism behind this – despite the pentagram on the floor the swirling lights were actually a comfort… I looked up at Arthur and watched him as he observed the lights once more only to begin screaming as we started to fall. It was as though the gravity had been turned off, the lights following us as we fell further and further into the darkness – I closed my eyes and braced for impact, but it never came…

Confused, I opened my eyes once more to look around us. It seemed as though we had entered the real world again – there was a soft mist on the floor, hiding our feet which was stood on damp green grass. We were stood at the beginning of a forest but the trees seemed to guide the way down along a hidden path towards a large building. I turned as I realised that I was no longer holding Arthur's hand to see him stood a bit away from me, just staring into the distance.

Then I realised he was wearing different clothes…

He was wearing khaki-green trousers, a dull brown t-shirt and a black jacket. It seemed suitable for this environment – but then I looked down and realised my clothes had changed too and I was far from impressed. I was in a peculiar knee-length red dress with a white collar, white socks and brown pumps.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I complained, walking over to Arthur who blinked at the sight of me. "The fuck is with these costume changes? We had the same gear on back in the other tomb!"

"Maybe because the genre of game called for it?" suggested Arthur, looking down at his new attire. "Mine's pretty good."

"Mine's not!" I said. "The one in the dress usually turns into the fucking damsel in distress and I do not do well as a damsel in distress. Nuh uh. Fuck no."

"I think you look pretty," Arthur smirked.

"I think you look pretty," I mimicked in a squeaky mocking voice. "Fuck you. Let's just go to that building, it seems that would be where we have to head…"

Arthur laughed at me but walked with me along the path towards the building. It was very eerie, a dirty grey that looked as though it had originally been white. The windows were high and old looking, like the building could have been an old castle – but as we got closer, the dark surrounding us in a shroud of night, I saw a sign outside that read:

_Hotel Ruhenhein_

"Oh fucking great…" I moaned. "A fucking abandoned looking hotel! What else could we have gone towards? Geez… at least it's not an abandoned school or hospital…"

"What are you going on about now?"

"The main locations of all horror games: abandoned hotels, abandoned schools, abandoned hospitals, abandoned homes and forests. We are in 2 of those locations with the right pathetic fallacy to make this just a little too realistic for my liking."

"You are so cynical," Arthur said, walking up to the wooden door of the hotel. "Come on."

"If I die, I'm haunting the shit out of you," I promised, following him into the building. It was dark inside, but there was still enough light outside to be able to keep it from behind pitch black. The main desk was right in front of us, two doors behind it which were likely to be the back door into a garden perhaps, the staff room plus the main office. On either side there were large wooden staircases and corridors leading off towards God knows where…

"Hmm…" Arthur hummed, walking over to the front desk to look at the visitor's book. It seemed as though it hadn't been used in a very long time. Making sure that I didn't stray very far from Arthur, I wandered around to the other side of the desk and pulled on the handles of the two doors behind it to find that they were securely locked. "There seems to be only a few places where we could go so maybe we should split up and tackle the two floors separately?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I snapped, turning around so fast the skirt of my dress twirled around me. "This is not Scooby Doo! We are not splitting up to look for clues because as soon as you separate shit hits the fan, someone gets either hurt or killed and then what do we fucking do?"

"It'll take a long time to get around this place as a pair though," Arthur countered. "We can search and make sure to find what we need and join up again once the coast is clear."

"You don't understand any of the rules of horror, do you?" I sighed.

"I'm sorry I never paid attention to the details of horror movies or games," Arthur snapped. "I'm just trying to get us out of here."

"And you're meant to be the fucking cop…" I said, rolling my eyes. "Fine! We'll split up – but if shit hits the fan, I am blaming you entirely for whatever happens."

"And I will take full responsibility," Arthur replied. "You take upstairs and I'll take downstairs."

"Again…" I started to say but stopped myself and sighed before walking up the stairs to check out the top floor. Honestly, Arthur was going to end up getting us killed by arguing with me so much over these things – I knew the rules: never split up, going upstairs will get you killed, never say 'what's the worst that could happen' or 'what could possibly go wrong' or my personal favourite 'I think we lost it'. I was glad I still had my bag with me and the talkie attached to the strap of it – it was a little daunting walking across the landing towards the silent left quarter. I walked down the corridor and tried each door – some were jammed, others were just locked, one needed a key code (it was the library by the looks of it) but thankfully one bedroom was open.

I stepped inside and looked around from the entrance at the room – had this been a real hotel it would probably have been a really nice place to stay; it was so elegant with its four poster bed with green sheets, the large dressing table with ornately framed mirror, the wardrobe. I stepped a little further into the room and jumped as the mirror cracked without anything touching it.

Walking over to it, I rummaged through the draws and found a slip of paper inside. It was a crudely drawn map, most likely by a child, claiming to have treasure hidden in one of the rooms. There were squares and circles – it seemed as though this room must have been the dining table, the rightmost table holding the treasure.

"Hmmm…" I said, looking around. I had no idea where the dining room was but with no other options I continued to walk out of the room to check out the right quarter which seemed to be just as quiet as the left. My footsteps echoed slightly as I walked along the tiled floor, trying each door and finding that none of them were open. Sighing, I walked back out to the landing and looked around – spotting to doors on the wall near the very top that I had neglected to check earlier… I checked the first and found it to be locked but the second led me into a large room filled with tables – the dining room. The second door appeared to be another entrance but that didn't matter – I could find this child's treasure if it was still there. I walked through the tables, consulting the map every so often until I got to the rightmost table and looked at the top. Nothing. Sighing, I braced myself before getting onto my knees – jumpscares… I was waiting for a fucking jumpscare… Slowly, I lifted the dirty grey table cloth and blinked as I found a small bronze key with a note attached to it.

'_You found the treasure! Congratulations!'_

"…Cute…" I chuckled, getting to my feet. I placed the key into the front pouch of my backpack for safe keeping and proceeded to check the dining room once more before leaving. I looked over the banister to see Arthur stood by the front desk again, so hurried downstairs and over to him. "Find anything?"

"An open bedroom with a key to a bar," he said. "Along with a locked food storage, lots of locked bedrooms and a slip of paper with a passcode for the library on it. You?"

"The bar, the dining room, locked bedrooms, one bedroom which scared the shit out of me, and the library," I said. "Oh, and in the bedroom there was a child's map which help me find a key under a table in the dining room."

"What does it go to?"

"I don't know…"

"Okay… What scared you up there?"

"The mirror cracked even though nothing was thrown at it and nothing was even near it," I replied. "Shall we head to the library first? Clearly it's important if we've been provided by with a key code for it."

"Fine," Arthur nodded. He followed me upstairs and into the left quarter, looking around until we got to the door. He stepped forwards and typed in the key code, listening to the clock of the lock and pushing the door open slowly. It creaked horribly but we stepped inside and looked around, in awe of how many books were in this place. One seemed out of place though, left on the table as though it were a clue. I walked over to it as Arthur scanned the shelf and found it to be a notebook. I flipped over the front page and read aloud:

"_Take note of the book of the month as its year of release will be the key code for the safe in the bar should anyone need to access the master key for the building,_" I paused and read through the list of book titles reaching the last written on page – the last title being _**Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde**_.

"Find Jekyll and Hyde," I said to Arthur. "It's the last book on this list so it's year of release should be the key code for the safe in the bar."

Arthur let me know he was looking, coming back a moment later with the book in his hand. "I'm assuming these are first editions – so the key code should be 1886."

"We're making progress," I smiled, glancing to the door as I heard a noise. Shaking myself, I pushed it off as just the old building and walked towards the door with Arthur. "To the bar!"

Arthur chuckled and followed me out of the room and along the corridor towards the bar, looking around and making sure that there was nothing us in there with us. We got to the door so I stepped aside and let Arthur open it, peaking inside at the bleak room. We entered cautiously, inspecting everything to make sure we didn't miss anything which was a good idea as Arthur found a full lighter. I went over to the bar in this time and went to the other side of it, locating the safe and putting in the key code – thankfully it was correct and the door popped open slightly allowing me to open it all the way and pull out the master key.

"Now, which door do we need to open?" I asked.

"Maybe the staff room door?" Arthur suggested. "I don't see anything important being inside the food storage. We could check and find some more information then go out back?"

"Okay," I agreed, climbing over to the other side of the bar again and following Arthur out onto the landing. We went downstairs again and made our way around the main desk, straight to the staff room door which Arthur opened cautiously from the key he had taken from me. We went inside and found a normal staff room, nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that seemed we had to do anything with aside from another door near the back. I sighed as Arthur walked over to it, listening to the tumblers click as he unlocked it before tentatively following him inside. This was definitely the main off of the hotel's manager but once again nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Well, until Arthur tripped over a rug and revealed a trap door into the basement. We looked at it then each other before Arthur tried to tug it open. It wouldn't budge.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said, stepping backwards. "Maybe we shouldn't open this…" Unfortunately, I felt my foot sink into the floor as I stepped backwards, glancing down to see the slight difference in colouring of the tile I had just stepped in. A clicking sound happened and on Arthur's next tug the door opened… "For fuck's sake…"

"Thank Amie," he chuckled. "Look, I have the lighter and your dress'll get caught on this ladder. I'll go down alone and check it out. I'll be as quick as I can."

"Okay," I replied, folding my arms and stepping off of the button. I watched him climb down into the basement. I listened to his footsteps, not daring to go any closer to the door. He was quiet for a moment before I heard a strange gargling snarl…

"OH FUCK!"

"Arthur…?"

"JESUS, FUCK, GET AWAY FROM ME!"

I went over to the door and looked down as I heard his footsteps, watching as he started to climb back up the ladder. He was nearly to the top when he tugged, so I got onto my knees and reached down for him to grab my hand. He grabbed it but as I looked past him I saw the mangled hand in his leg – the rest of the person was shrouded but that hand was all it took to freak me into an adrenaline rush. I pulled Arthur up hard enough that he fell on top of me again, but this time we shifted fast enough to slam the door back down and hear it lock again.

"What was that?" I asked, punching his arm for scaring me.

"I… I… I… don't know…" Arthur stuttered, holding his arm. "It's neck… Fuck it's neck was… long and crooked and it's head was upside down hanging there with a crooked smile and… Fuck… let's get out of here now!"

"We still have to check the garden…" I said. "We've not found what we've came here for yet."

"Fuck…" Arthur said. "You need to leave then. I'm sorry. But that thing… You need to leave. I'll find whatever it is we need. Just go outside."

"Fuck no," I snapped, getting to my feet and pulling him up too. We hurried out of the room and over to the backdoor. "We are sticking together – you are not pulling that misogynistic crap on me now! Just because I'm a girl I can't deal with that shit? Fuck you. That's stop arguing, find what we need and leave, cos if we've found that thing that must mean we fucked up somehow."

"Fine," Arthur snapped back, opening the back door with the key. "How come the back door was locked whilst the front was open to let us inside."

"There wouldn't be a game otherwise," I replied, stepping out into the overgrown garden. It was horrible and weedy, the grass knee high but so straggly and wet that it was flat in some places. In the centre was an old fashioned fountain so we walked over to it and looked into the water – blinking as we found an ornate box inside. I picked it up out of the water and stared at it, jumping as the backdoor slammed open. Arthur stepped in front of me but I could still see it…

It was just how Arthur described it… A long crooked neck with a dead hanging head with a crooked smile and dirty black hair – but it wore peculiar filthy clothes. It snarled and started to rush towards us, Arthur pushing me to run. It chased us round the fountain but it was slower than us for a moment so we managed to run back into the building… It sped up though, managing to run around the front desk just as we vaulted over it. I gasped as Arthur shoved me aside.

"RUN AMIE," he shouted, shoving me towards the stairs. He'd also pressed the master key into my hand. It was so fast I didn't even think, I ran up those stairs quickly, heading to the left and aiming for the first bedroom I could find. I unlocked the door and slammed it shut behind me, looking around for any sign of a place to hide. The wardrobe… I ran to the wardrobe and hid inside, shutting the door firmly and keeping quiet. I genuinely hated having to do that, but I gathered we would have both gotten killed if I had argued with Arthur… I could hear the noises downstairs, the snarls of the monster and the shouts of Arthur. I closed my eyes, waiting for the noise to stop…

When it eventually did I waited just a moment longer before peeking out from my hiding place. Letting out a sigh of relief, I stepped out and slipped the box into the main pouch of my backpack and the master key into the front before walking over to the window to check the back garden quick.

It seemed as though the floor boards over there hadn't been checked in a while though as they creaked threateningly under my added weight before crumbling so fast I had enough time to let out a screech and jump forwards onto another weak structure right by the window. I panted, gripping onto the window ledge to try and hold off my weight – looking towards the door as I heard running along the corridor. Frightened, I waited to see the monster but felt a ripple of relief course through me as a battered Arthur came into the room.

"Amelia!" he called. "What… Are you okay?"

"It's gonna break!" I replied. "I'm gonna fall!"

"Don't be silly," Arthur replied calmly, standing at the edge of the hole. "I'll catch you so jump. Jump!"

"Are you crazy!?"

"Just jump Amelia!"

Closing my eyes for a moment, I pressed my weight onto the wood and jumped forwards, feeling it fall from beneath my feet just as I pressed off. I thought for sure that I would fall too, but sure enough I felt Arthur's arms around me so I opened my eyes to look up at him.

"Fuck this damsel in distress stuff," I said, giving him a small smile.

"Let's get out of here," he replied. "Now."

"Where was the monster?"

"I gave it the slip," Arthur said. "I think we've lost it."

I grimaced at his statement, looking over his shoulder to see the bedroom door open slowly. "You spoke too soon…" I said. Arthur blinked and looked around, shoving me aside again. I stayed quiet and moved to the shadows, watching as the monster only focused on Arthur.

"Come on then!" he shouted, stepping away slightly. The monster stalked him around to the hole but before it could strike, Arthur grabbed it and all but threw it down into the hole. "The room below is locked. It should hold it for now so let's go."

"Okay," I said, running with him out of the room, downstairs and over to the main door. He made me go outside first before shutting the door behind us. I rummaged through the front pouch of my backpack and handed him the master key, watching him lock the door before falling down onto the front steps and panting.

"Fuck this game," he said, running a hand through his hair. "What was that box anyway?"

"Oh!" I said, getting it out of my backpack. "It's really pretty… But it's locked."

"Shit…"

"Wait a minute…" I said, reaching back into my bag and pulling out the small bronze key. "If this works…" I muttered before putting the key into the lock and hearing it unlock. "Yes!"

"Oh that's great," Arthur grinned, standing up to look inside as I opened it. There inside was a tennis ball sized red gem which I picked up and grinned at.

"Hey, Arthur," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for what you did in there," I smiled. "I may not have shown it at the time but I appreciate it."

"No problem," he replied, smiling. He blushed though as I pressed a kiss to his cheek, something I chuckled at before the world melted away and we were thrown back into another loading screen.

_**Notes:**_

**LONGEST**

**CHAPTER**

**SO**

**FAR!**

**FUCK YEAH!**

**I was so freaking pumped to write this chapter – I really hope you guys let me know what you thought of it cos I worked super hard!**

**For those of you who weren't able to guess this chapter/level was based on the RPG Maker game **The Crooked Man** by someone called Uri and translated into English by vgperson. Though it drags – and believe me I referenced its faults – it's a really creepy game which I recommend checking out. In it you play David Hoover (Arthur's role) and in different location you are not only haunted by The Crooked Man but you have to find clues about a man who used to live in David's apartment and meet characters including Sisi (Amelia's role). **

**I'm trying to keep these tomb levels to one level per chapter as the games I have chosen to base these levels on are kinda long in themselves depending on how you play. So please bear with me :3**

**I hope you enjoyed and see you next time!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Cyber Island**

**Chapter Eleven**

It was nice to see how the tomb doors worked for myself – but to be honest I think it was just a good feeling to have not been knocked out at the end of a level for once. I know that it only happened that one time, but I had a sinking suspicion that it may end up becoming a regular occurrence – especially with the growing amount of violence within each level.

The tomb doors swung open slowly before us so I glanced at Arthur to silently ask whether it was okay to walk outside. He smiled at me kindly and motioned for me to go ahead, and I knew that I could trust this gesture because he had earned it. He had put his life at risk by pushing me away during that haunted level and I knew that he was being absolutely genuine with me – like most games and movies, I had slowly forgotten just how long he had really been in the game; it seemed like he had been there with me the entire time, that I really hadn't been alone for so long, but in actual fact it was only a few days into his trial.

I stepped out into the dim lighting of the graveyard – instantly noticing that we were back in our original game clothing – and looked around for a moment to try and spot Matthew. But he was nowhere to be found. Confused, I turned around and looked at Arthur's confused face and realised that it wasn't me just being unobservant as usual but he really wasn't there.

"Where's he gotten to?" I asked.

"I have no idea," Arthur replied. "But we can't really worry about it too much for now, can we? We have to get out of this place and let his family know what happened to him… and that means entering the third crypt."

"I know…" I said, "but that doesn't mean that we can't be concerned about where he's gone to. I mean, he's been pretty helpful and if anything's happened to him…"

"Not a lot can happen to me seeing as I'm dead, but the concern is appreciated all the same."

We both jumped and I looked up furiously at the grinning face of the dead Canadian as he sat on top of one of the crypts. He was leaning down slightly and for a moment he looked as though he could turn into the Cheshire Cat. He jumped down and floated lightly in front of us, his arms folded and a new expression on his face that was silently asking us to explain what had happened inside the crypt.

"Why the fuck were you on top of that thing?" I asked. "And how long were you up there?"

"I got bored and went on top," Matthew shrugged. "You guys were in there at least… I don't know about 2 and a half hours. It was pretty boring hanging around out here alone, even for a dead guy."

"Whoa…" I muttered. "Well, that crypt was pretty spooky… It was a hotel, like this really shitty old hotel and there was a monster in there with a crooked… Oh I get it now…"

"What do you mean?" asked Arthur.

"That was based on that old Mother Goose poem," I said. "You know 'The Crooked Man'."

"That's vaguely familiar…" Arthur said.

"_There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a little crooked house_," I recited from memory. "I'm surprised you don't remember it… Well, my mother did like to read Alfred and I random stories and I kinda liked that one…"

"That's kind of creepy," Arthur said. "But anyway, how's about we actually go into this new crypt, yeah?"

"Fine," I said. "One moment though." Arthur rolled his eyes and walked over to the third crypt, leaning against the stone wall and waiting as I looked into my backpack and checked that I had the stones that we needed so far. As soon as I was comfortable, I hitched it back up onto my back and walked over to Arthur. He moved aside for me and together we pushed open the next door.

It was the same as before – pure black and nothing else until the doors closed and the loading screen began to work around us. I sighed and looked around, trying to ignore Arthur's foot tapping as he impatiently waited for us to be thrown into the next level.

"Where do you think we'll be next?" I asked, trying to break the tension.

"I don't know," Arthur replied, still tapping his foot. "Look, I don't know why you did what you did but…"

"Wait, you're pissy because I kissed your cheek?" I asked.

"Don't get any funny ideas," Arthur said. "I'm an officer… I've been looking for you for a year… It's totally inappropriate…"

"Dude, just because a girl kisses your cheek doesn't mean she wants you to dip your wick," I snapped. "I was grateful that you were so chivalrous towards me. I have known you for 3 days – how's about _you_ don't get any funny ideas."

Arthur looked at me for a moment and I looked back – I didn't know what he was about to say but the next thing I knew the air had left my body and I felt myself falling into darkness…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

"Amie… Amelia… OI!"

I jumped awake and looked around in surprise, my breath heavy in my chest as I tried to adjust to my surroundings. I looked to my left and saw Arthur, then in front of me and saw a dark haired girl and a silver haired boy. We were in a car I realised – we were in normal clothing (I had denim shorts and a blue vest top) and were driving along an open road.

"Well, she's finally joined us!" Arthur chuckled, not looking at me. "Amelia, these two are Sakura and Gilbert. I've checked and they're people, they've been stuck in this level until the right about of players showed up – it seems they've been doing this in a different order to us. I can vouch for them as they're on our missing person's wall back at the station…"

"Hey," Gilbert said, looking at me through the rear-view mirror. I was startled by his red eyes. "This is the last level I've got to get through… Well, apart from that fucker with the weird lock… How long have you been here?"

"A year," I replied, not trusting them. "You?"

"About a month," replied Gilbert. "I'm a mechanic with my brother and I was called out to service that crazy fucker's car. He invited me inside and boom. I was in this place and that fucking Russian Hulk attacked me. I managed to get away through some gloomy shit and wound up here."

"That 'crazy fucker' is my older brother," snapped Sakura, looking round at me. I blinked as I finally recognised her and she the same as she laid eyes on me. She had been an old girlfriend of my brother's, a good friend of mine but I hadn't spoken to her for a while – even before going into the doomsday machine… "Amie…"

"Sakura…"

"You two know each other?" asked Gilbert.

"She was my friend back out in the real world," I replied. "Plus she used to date my brother… Fuck, I forgot Kiku was your older brother… But why the Hell are you in here?"

"After things started to get serious and the police were looking into my brother's work I got suspicious," Sakura explained. "I… I went to the lab and…"

"He caught you and zapped you in here?"

"Hai…"

I looked out of the window, the tightness in my chest easing up as I realised that I really could trust these people – I knew Sakura, I had known her way longer than her brother and she was kind and sweet. Gilbert seemed okay, a bit of a potty mouth but then again so was I. I looked out of the window at the foggy woodlands beside the road and tried to make out anywhere we could have been going, my attention being drawn to the sight of Arthur looking numbly out of his window. I knew that I had been harsh on him but he had pushed me a little too far that time – I counted him as a friend but he needed to get a hold of himself and sort his priorities out.

"Where are we even going?" I asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea…" Gilbert said. "We've been driving for about an hour now, and I woke up doing so…"

"You've been asleep quite a while," Sakura said. "It seems like a bit longer than us, but we really can't be sure."

I sighed and looked out of the window again, jumping slightly as the engine sputtered and we slowed to a stop in the middle of the road. Arthur leant forwards in his seat and tried to see out of the windshield, Gilbert and Sakura looking round in confusion too.

"Why did we stop…?" asked Sakura. "I've been in that Crooked world and I don't like this…"

"You guys stay in the car, I'll go and check the engine," Gilbert said.

"Fuck no," I said, unbuckling my seat belt. "Splitting up as I've said before is a fucking stupid idea. Even just going out of a car. I'm going with you."

"… Fair enough, Blondie," Gilbert said, getting out of the car. I rolled my eyes and followed after him, walking around to the front of the car with my arms wrapped around myself as the cool mist hit my skin. I watched as Gilbert opened the bonnet of the car and started to fiddle with the engine, grunting in frustration as he kicked the license plate.

"I take it there's nothing wrong with the car…" I observed.

"You hit the nail on the head," Gilbert said, running a hand through his bizarre silver hair. "This really feels as though we've stepped into a freaking horror movie or something…"

"Well…" I sighed, looking around us, "we are in the middle of another video game level so it's more than likely to be a horror story…" Beside me, Gilbert groaned again and bent down to double check the engine of what I realised was a pretty outdated car whilst I walked away just a little bit to have a better look around the area. I rubbed my arms again as the mist chilled my arms, blinking slightly as I looked into the distance and saw a figure walking towards us through the mist. "Uh, Gil…"

He moved over to my side and watched as the wrinkled face of an elderly man came into focus through the mist, the old man holding up a lantern and dressed like an old fashioned hunter – deer-stalker and all. His eyes narrowed as they landed on us, a look of concern on his face – I soon gathered that this man was just a part of the AI, but he seemed so realistic that I forgot the situation for a moment.

"What are you kids doing out here?" he asked, moving ever closer to us. "This isn't the best place for a date, you know. It's far too dangerous up in these mountains."

"Uh, we're not…" Gilbert started to say.

"Our car broke down," I cut in, deciding to play along as it would be the only way we could get out of there. "Our friends are still inside but we honestly don't know what's happened to it. It's not the engine, it literally just stopped."

"Oh my, that's not good," the old man said. "Do you have anywhere to stay the evening?"

"Nah," I said. "I think we'll just be spending the night in the car and see what we can do in the morning."

"Don't be stupid," the old man said, shaking his head. "Even in this wonderful summer we're having the night air gets to freezing temperatures. I own a mansion not too far from here – it's large enough to have all of you stay in your own room in comfort. I'm a landlord in a slump from tenants, so believe me I have been keeping the place orderly."

"Are you sure?" Gilbert asked. "I mean, you don't even know us and you're willing to take in four complete strangers for the night?"

"Call it an old man's experience that I know just what you're going through and would like to make it just a little easier…" he said earnestly. I glanced at Gilbert who looked back at me just as confused.

"Let us talk it through with our friends," I said.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Arthur and Sakura agreed to the idea as soon as we explained to them what was going on and in no time we had all trekked up to the very impressive mansion with the old man, who had finally introduced himself as Albert Farrington. It was impressive and a little unnerving to look around at the area outside as we entered the front garden through a side-path through a small yet dense thicket of trees. And we were made aware very quickly of why the path was to the side – in front of the mansion was a giant swamp.

I wasn't even very close to the water and I could tell that it was dark, dirty and murky – and I didn't want to be anywhere near it.

We got into the manor and Albert showed us to our rooms, all of which were side by side and right at the back of the entrance way near the stairs on the ground floor – he told us that we were not to go upstairs for anything as everything we could need (bathroom, living room, kitchen etc.) were all on the bottom floor too. I followed everyone along as they were led into their rooms, departing from Arthur's as I was finally shown my own room.

It was beautiful and old fashioned – there was a fireplace in the back-centre, the simple double bed with blue sheets in the rightmost corner in line with one of the four windows. There was a small table in the very centre of the room with a small blue double seated sofa, a wardrobe in the corner and a writing desk on the leftmost wall with its own little wooden chair. I was in awe of the detail in the small paintings that adorned the walls and the little carvings that made intricate patterns on the wooden frame of the bed.

"I suppose you kids are hungry?" asked Albert. I turned and nodded.

"Now you mention it, I am pretty hungry…" I said. "I think we all are… Is there anywhere we can go to get food?"

"Don't be so silly, Las," he smiled. "There's plenty of food in this place, I'll make you all something to eat. You just get settled okay. Strange none of you have more than those backpacks though."

"We… travel light," I responded, smiling back before he turned and walked out of the room. Waiting for a moment for his footsteps to grow fainter, I left the room and wandered into Arthur's, knocking first before opening the door and looking around his. He turned and looked at me, the dark jacket he'd been provided in his hands leaving him in only a green t-shirt and jeans.

"Hey," he said, smiling at me a little. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" I replied, rubbing my arm. "About earlier…"

"Don't sweat it," he said, throwing the jacket onto his bed and turning to give me his full attention. "You were right to say what you did – I was being weird and it was uncalled for."

"Thank you," I said, smiling slightly. "So, we're cool?"

"We're cool," he chuckled. "Did I hear Albert say he was going to cook us some dinner?" I nodded. "Fantastic. We've not eaten in ages."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

The food we were given was fantastic and I couldn't find a single fault as I slurped up the noodles and licked the sauce from my cheek as it hit me on occasion. Arthur and Gilbert kept looking at me oddly and I knew that they were starting to make comparisons between myself and Sakura – she was sat neatly eating her noodles in the correct way, not making a mess or noise and generally being a lot more lady-like than I was.

I didn't care though – it was the first 'real' meal that I had had in ages. Albert had left for the evening, talking about a meeting that he had to attend for the weekend in a village nearby but before he had left he warned us not to go wandering around in the fog or mountains. Just to see what we could do about our car and stay for as long as we needed to.

Without even finishing her meal, Sakura stood up from the table and spoke in a quiet voice, "I'm not feeling all that well… I'm going to have an early night… Do you mind…?"

"Of course not," Arthur said, taking her bowl into his own. "You go rest and we'll try and find a way out of this place in the morning." Sakura nodded slowly and walked back to her bedroom, leaving us to sit and wash up and put everything away. Whilst the boys were chatting and drying up, I wandered out of the room and gathered some towels before walking into the large ground floor bathroom and running myself a bath. As soon as everything was ready, I stripped off and got into the water – washing myself properly before leaning my head back and closing my eyes.

I dozed off for a moment, my dreams filled with obscure images of a silhouette through water, until I jumped slightly and opened my eyes. It took me a moment to adjust before I looked down to a disturbing sight.

The water around my body was murky and dirty, far too black to be any of the dirt from my body.

"What the…" I muttered as my thoughts caught up to me before I bolted out of the tub screaming. "What the fuck?!"

Before I could turn to get a towel, the bathroom door burst open. I turned in shock, standing stark naked in front of Arthur…

"What the hell is going…" he started to say, slipping into silence as he realised what had just happened. He turned quickly and walked out of the room, leaving me embarrassed and flustered as I grabbed my towel. "What happened?" I heard him say from the doorway.

"The water in the tub… it's black…" I said. "Come and look… It's not my fault… It just turned black…"

Reluctantly, Arthur came back into the room (relaxing as he realised I was covered up) and looked into the bathtub. "Fuck… What… This is swamp water. This is the water from outside."

"Why is it in my bath water?"

"Maybe it's a plumbing defect?" Arthur suggested. "But that would affect the toilet too and that's fine…"

"…I'm gonna go get dressed and check on Sakura…" I muttered, hurrying out of the room and leaving Arthur to investigate the mystery water.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Sakura was fast asleep when I had gone to check on her so I left her to sleep, sitting in the living room with the TV on in the background. I had the Talkie in my hands, waiting for any word of reply from Lovina and Alfred.

"Come on…" I sighed. "Alfred… Sakura's here… You remember her right? Your ex from school? The girl you kept friends with but couldn't be in a relationship with anymore? Fuck… This is getting too deep… Just… help…"

"Who are you talking to?"

I looked round as Gilbert walked over to me and sat down beside me on the sofa, shaking my head a little. "No one," I said. "Well… I'm trying to get hold of my brother on the outside but he's not responding… Neither is the police techy… See, they're not in the game but the techy, Lovina, has been able to hack in and get views of the entire island and wherever Arthur and I are. They've not spoken to us at all today though…"

"Sounds like you've got some firepower behind you," Gilbert chuckled. "More than I've had."

"I've been here the longest…" I replied. "No offense."

"None taken," he said. "It must have sucked… being here all alone with no clue what was going on…"

"I wasn't entirely alone but the company was so unwanted I had to make sure I was alone," I replied. "I was sent in here the same time as Ivan, that Russian bastard that attacked you. He's been out for my blood since day one and has evolved into a creature I can't even name…"

"So he's like some glitched-out Pokémon?"

"Exactly!"

Gilbert chuckled and looked at the time on the clock on the wall. "I'm gonna head to bed," he said. "You should think about doing so too."

"I'm not even tired," I lied.

"Fair enough, but try."

I watched him as he walked away, sighing softly as I looked at the device in my hands. "You had better help me, guys. Or so help me God I may end up doing something bad…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Everything was dim and hazy, the world rippling around me. I was breathing but soon I realised that it wasn't air but water. I blinked as I looked around, realising that indeed the entire house was underwater. I was still in the living room and it seemed as though it had happened so suddenly – like I had blinked and the world had flooded – so I stood quickly and walked with ease towards the side-living room door. I opened it and stepped out into the corridor, blinking slightly as I saw a shadow at the end of the hall. It walked around the corner and I knew that it had to have gone into either Sakura or Gilbert's rooms.

But my feet took me straight to Sakura's door.

I pulled it open and stared from the doorway as the shadow loomed over her bed, its hissing voice reaching my ears as it rambled 'mine' over and over.

"NO!" I shouted, but got thrown back against the opposite wall catching the sight of a swollen cheek and bloodshot eye before my own opened once more and I gasped harshly. I looked around, back in the living room once more and feeling so disorientated. I realised that I had fallen asleep judging by the light that was coming in from outside already but I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right – and it was definitely to do with that dream. I got up from the sofa and ran out of the room, heading straight to Sakura's room and prising the door open.

It was dark in there, pitch black but I could see her curled up under her covers. I walked over to the windows and pulled the curtains open, letting in the morning sunshine before looking at the bed. I steeled myself before pulling back the covers, jumping back and screaming at the sight before me…

Sakura was totally swollen all over her body, even her tongue and eyes which were bulging from her mouth and eye socket. She was mumbling about being cold and breathing harshly through her nose…

Gilbert and Arthur ran into the room.

"Amie, what's hap…" Arthur began to say before freezing at the sight of Sakura in the bed. He and Gilbert walked over speechlessly, staring at the poor girl as I shook and panicked.

"I don't know why she's like this…" I said. "I don't know what to do… What do we do? What do we do?!"

"Calm down," Gilbert said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Just keep calm okay? This is just part of the game… We need to find out more and we'll get out of this okay…"

I nodded and took a deep breath.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

We made sure that Sakura was okay and left her in the room to try and rest, though the state she was suddenly in was likely to be stopping her from getting any sleep whatsoever. I had wandered outside to investigate the swamp whilst the guys split up inside to find anything that would help us find a way to help Sakura or shed light on the story of the game.

I walked over to a small stone slab that had been erected beside the swamps edge, crouching down to read the inscription that had been left carved before me. "_Once a lonely Prince wandered from his castle to the water's edge in search of adventure. To his surprise, he found a beautiful mermaid sat upon a rock. He spoke to her, fell in love and whisked her away to his castle where they married. But the mermaid did not like this life on land so the Prince built her a tank in which to live. He filled it with the wrong water and the mermaid soon grew ugly. She swelled and eventually died. The Prince grew to love her even in her awful state and kept her floating in the water. But it was not enough… one girl was not enough. He wanted more. The Prince, and since then his male descendants, continued to take women from the village and create their own mermaids. All in honour to the women still floating in the Prince's dreams. Soon the women of the village cursed the Prince, saying that she who should enter the castle from beyond the village would suffer the same fate as the mermaid in favour of the village's safety…_"

"What's that?" asked Arthur as he walked out of the mansion towards me.

"A tale… or maybe even a curse… See, it tells the story of a prince who found a mermaid and accidentally killed her. But he loved her disgusting form and kidnapped women from the village to recreate his mermaid. Even his descendants did it. And any women who entered the castle from outside of the village would suffer the same fate as the mermaid to keep the village girls safe…"

"Oh shit…" he muttered. "You don't think this is what's happening to Sakura do you?"

"It's entirely possible," I sighed. I looked up at the sky for any kind of sign but blinked as I looked through the trees the other side of the mansion. "Arthur… There's another building back there…"

"Huh?" Arthur said, looking too. "Oh yeah, Albert said to me that it was an old version of the mansion we're staying in. That this one had been built about 20 years ago as the old one was falling to pieces. It's basically the same house."

"What's the betting that we're going to have to go in there?"

"Double shit…"

_**Notes:**_

**I'M BACK! **

**I AM ALIVE MY FRIENDS I HAVE JUST HAD TO DEAL WITH REAL LIFE!**

**Basically, my dad had 2 weeks holiday from his job so we went on day trips and had fun as a family. He's now back in work and I am trying to overcome anxiety issues with real life need for employment and stuff and the prospect of possibly getting an apprenticeship soon!**

**Anyways, I hope that this longer chapter is enough to satisfy you for now! I won't promise to update any other story tomorrow so we'll just have to take it as it comes – it all depends on my life and mental state. But yeah! This was going to be even longer but I couldn't fit it all in without being overwhelming so it's a two parter, this level!**

**Also, the game I'm basing this chapter on is called **Mermaid Swamp**, and the only YouTuber that I'm aware of that has done a Let's Play of this is CinnamonToastKen, so you can go to his channel to check out the full real story line. I chose this because the characters look like they could be in Hetalia – the main character, Rin, looks like Amelia, another looks like Gilbert, Yuka looks like Sakura and the other guy who I think is called Yuuta looks like Italy. But I had Arthur instead xD Because #YOLO… **

**ANYWAYS! SEE YOU NEXT TIME FOR WHATEVER I UPDATE NEXT! **


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